Phantasy Star V : Siren's Way
by Black Waltz 0
Summary: PSIII PSIV The Profound Darkness has been defeated and all of Algo is at peace. Not likely. The barrier between esper and android is irreversably blurred and ancient hatreds renewed, because in the end the only way left is Siren's way...
1. Prologue

_Phantasy Star V :_

Siren's Way

A Phantasy Star Fanfiction By

Black Waltz 0

†††

_'For what we cannot accomplish, what  
is denied to love,  
what we have lost in the anticipation -  
a descent follows,  
endless and indestructible.'_

_-- William Carlos Williams_

**Prologos**

He awoke to a faceful of gritty sand, the kind that sinks in everywhere and is impossible to remove. He was almost entirely buried by it, the fluctuating tides over the course of many long weeks coating him with layer upon layer of burial sand. He had been sent to die here, and yet he was not dead.

Far off, in another fold of his dark buried world seagulls shrilled and cried overhead, riding the thermals of the stormy sky. There was a piercing scent of salt in the air, flavoring it sharp and biting, an unfamiliar sensation. The vibrations of an alien world, at least to him. He shifted about lazily, testing to see if each of his four limbs were functioning properly. He feared that a drop of water, or any kind of outer moisture would touch a live wire or a circuit in his body and then completely blow out all of his systems. He was utterly waterlogged and that made him a ticking time bomb.

Wren found some kind of leverage with his arms and pushed himself onto his knees, thick clumps of wet sand falling from his face and shoulder plates. Water dripped in constant streams from the seams in his armor and his hair. It was not fresh rain water, it had the salty tang of the sea. His eyes flicked up slightly, towards the tumultuous blue ocean. The tide was out, the water level of the beach receding. He vaguely had a brief memory of being in the very midst of that field of darkest blue, sinking like a leaden weight but trying desperately to swim, his heavy metal armor anchoring him down. He had sunk like a stone and then everything had gone unbearably black.

He could see huge thunderheads on the greying horizon. They grumbled and flashed with momentary bursts of concealed lightning. The storm was moving inward, reaching out to the land. That was why the seagulls were screaming and scattering about like small frightened children; the storm was on its way here. This type of weather was far too dangerous for it to be intentional, Wren feared that something had gone horribly wrong at the weather station, causing this freakishly large storm.

But then again, of course it was. That was why he was lying here like a discarded chess piece. That was why he had been left here to die.

The top priority for him right now was to find a way to dry himself out. Wren was waterproof up to a certain degree, but once he passed that degree all of his systems were in critical danger. It was raining, wet sand clung to him like it was statically charged, and once that storm hit his luck was almost certain to run out. It was a miracle in itself that he had managed to reactivate just before it broke.

Standing and feeling his heavy body sinking down even further into the loose sand, Wren accessed his internal systems to discern the approximate time. His biometric clock functioned flawlessly even when he was in the most advanced state of deactivation. The last time he had checked it had been four weeks, six days, eight hours and thirty four minutes ago. He had been lying here like driftwood for over a month. A miracle indeed. His global positioning system had more encouraging results. He was on a beach off the coast of Kadary, an eight hour walk to the nearest spaceport. That would be familiar territory for him.

He didn't bother to brush away the sand. Once he dried out it would sift harmlessly away from his body. Coldly, emotionlessly, Wren selected a direction along the beach and began to follow that path, his head bowed low so that the light chilling rain would not drip into his eyes. The cliffs drew higher in that direction and would offer him basic shelter from the elements and the storm, and especially from the lightning. Wren was wary of the lightning most of all, the ocean only had a small chance of killing him, but a single stroke of lightning from the heavens above would be an instant death sentence. He was, after all, a lightning magnet.

There was an abandoned wharf somewhere up the beach, the dull wooden planks and posts warped and broken by the constant violent waves and the passage of time. The sand was becoming coarser and more stable under Wren's feet, petering out into the rocky fragments of the coastal cliffs. The slick foundation of the forgotten pier was strangled with barnacles and decaying wisps of seaweed, revealing to him exactly how far the water would rise when the beach reached high tide. When the storm broke upon the land this area would become a hell on Motavia. With the cliffs on one side and the ocean on the other, Wren appeared to be trapped, held in place by an invisible net as the lightning drew ever closer.

Siren had prepared this storm to make sure that Wren stayed dead. He was a cautious one, cautious enough to never make a mistake until now, but Siren was making hasty preparations to correct that particular error. The android waded silently back into the water, mindful of the horrendous risk that he was taking, but the ancient pier would never have been able to support his weight. He was going to get wet either chance he took and the rain was coming down even harder now.

A small rowboat was moored timidly to the side of the pier, secured to land by a single half-rotted rope. It rocked about and shook in the growing winds. With streams of water coursing down his face and dripping along his audio sensors and chin, Wren leant down and carefully snapped the old rope in half, releasing the boat from its anchor. It was almost certainly going to be lost soon and cast far out to sea, but Wren needed something from it first.

Its top was covered over by a large grey nylon tarp, the edges eaten away and ratty, but still quite waterproof. The inside of the rowboat was more or less dry. Wren methodically broke the thin strings that kept the tarp tied down and dragged it and himself out of the water, shaking out the moisture from the cover with a deft and mechanical flick of his wrists. He drew it over his body carefully, hoping that it would function like a cloak and keep him moderately dry, just as it had worked before. He couldn't risk letting the rain and the sea water reach his core.

He continued on at a plodding pace, walking against the path of the wind. He kept one of his hands clenched against his neck in order to keep the tarp in proper place. It protected his head, shoulders and back perfectly from the rain, but there was nothing he could do for his front which was pelted constantly with dangerous raindrops. Wren checked his GPS frequently during his trek, trusting it with all of the faith he could muster.

The cliffs would grow high all around him for many hours, yet a small path below would always remain constant and accessible, provided he was willing to become occasionally knee-deep in water . Eventually the cliffs would start to shrink again and he would have access to Kadary's wide wasted wilderness. From there he would be able to walk to adequate shelter. He was grimly looking forward to being back in his element again, the vast machines and computers that maintained the Algo solar system. He would be home again.

Close enough to home, anyway. How much would have changed in a month's time? To be honest Wren feared for the safety of the others and everybody else on the planet of Motavia, because he had no way of knowing if they were still alive or dead. He had not seen a living soul since he had come back to consciousness in the rain. Perhaps Siren had already completed his dirty work and everybody was dead. Perhaps Wren was already far too late. Maybe the bottom of the ocean was where he truly belonged.

These dark thoughts did not show up on his expressionless face. He was not used to thinking in this manner but he was grateful that it distracted his processor from an even more troubling thought in the back of his neural matrix. He didn't want to think about it, or what Siren might have already done. Wren halted for a moment in order to look out to sea, his cool grey eyes unharmed by the thick wet raindrops that splattered against his face. He witnessed the first few streaks of lightning slash across the sky, arched and jagged like shards of broken glass. Wren could feel the invisible currents of electricity charging the air. A storm, the perfect way to murder a rogue android.

Siren was a smart one indeed.

Wren turned back to the cliffs, picking up his pace as well as he was able. His long stay within the bedside of the ocean had allowed sand to infiltrate some of his inner joints, which made them hard to move and creaky, like arthritis. When he got home he hoped that he would be able to give himself a tune-up. For now though all he need do was put one foot out in front of the other until he was safe. As long as he kept things simple and took things immediately as they came, he would have no need to remember, not just yet. Wren could wait, physical exertion seemed to be the only thing that he could manage for now. Once he had been the caretaker of an entire planetary system, now he could barely take care of himself. Irony was never without a sense of humor.

Wordlessly, Wren pressed on. It was remarkably slow going, but soon he had the tops of the cliffs stretching over his head, protecting him from the rain and the lightning. He traveled from rock pool to rock pool, sometimes inching along wet rocks and concealed sandstone pathways. The tide rose unceasingly and furious waves buffeted the stones that Wren chose to climb or hide behind, only slightly protected by the spray. The tarp about his body was rapidly becoming a sopping mess, but slowly, at a snail's pace, Wren could feel his inner core and electronics beginning to dry out. As long as the water didn't reach any higher than his waist he would be fine.

Hours passed and the day turned to abysmal night. The android didn't cease his wandering, he merely paused for a brief second to switch his optics from colour differentiation to proper night vision. The land about him suddenly distorted into to a world of fuzzy green and black. There were no stars in the sky, the entire horizon for as far as Wren could see was blanketed with thick storm clouds, as puffy and dark as clotted molasses. Somewhere beyond those clouds was the space station Zelan, now the headquarters of the enemy. He had been robbed of his only home.

He felt an odd kind of anger in those thoughts, a sensation that felt completely alien to him. Wren had never had to experience what homelessness and a loss of purpose felt like, yet all it brought out was an irrational fury. It didn't seem right to him, so he locked that notion deeply away. It was distracting him from walking properly, he was thrown back into the world by the unexpected slip of his feet. Wren spread his arm out and braced himself against the wall of the cliff, nearly slipping over due to a single strand of slimy seaweed.

There was a deafening boom from the air and the sky lit up momentarily, casting over the land a brightness that was almost as potent as the sun on a hot spring day. Wren shielded his eyes from the flash and watched with silent wonder as a spire of rock peeking from the churning ocean exploded in a burst of light and sparks, sending rocky shrapnel hundreds of meters away in all directions. It was far down the coast but Wren could still see it clearly. It was a warning, a threat, as if Siren knew precisely that he was there.

Wren was almost free of the cliffs when the storm hit the land square-on. He climbed a small rock formation and pulled himself free from the shelter that the stones provided, swinging one leg over the side of the cliff's edge and then the other, standing on flat arid soil at last. A harsh wasteland stretched out in front of him, the grounds of shale and dusty sands doing nothing to soak up the rain from the sky. The water was puddling about in small murky pools, unable to be absorbed by the bedrock that was only inches below the surface. This wasn't the lively desert of Aiedo and Nalya, home to hundreds of subterranean life forms, this was a sterile desert that beget nothing, bereft of all life.

A few trees and stones were dotted here and there amidst the flat vacant landscape. The stones looked like giant discarded animals bones and the trees were leafless and twisted, undeniably dead. The sky was huge and menacing over the desert, choked with clouds. Wren had never seen it look so vast and enraged before. It was indeed angry, furious at him, mad that he had abandoned his post and given up. It would strike him down for being so impetuous, Wren knew it.

Crossing the desert alive would be near impossible during the storm. Wren looked about his surroundings with a cynical eye for opportunity. Lightning functioned in a notably simple way. It would strike out at the highest point in a landscape, taking the quickest route to the ground. Failing that, the white flashes of light would seek out anything made of a conductive material, of which Wren was wholly a part of. He could not take cover under the trees and stones, moving through the field at all would endanger his life. He couldn't wait out the storm either, Siren would have it running perpetually until he was satisfied. What could he possibly do?

The one thing that he was still certain of was that he couldn't stay in place for very long. That was a sure fire way to attract the lightning. Mournfully Wren considered the path ahead of him and started to move, trusting everything to a concept as immaterial as luck. There was nothing more that he could do except to walk. He had come so far and endured much pain and suffering, so if it all ended here in the middle of nowhere with nobody to bear witness Wren would feel just as he was feeling right now, miserable and useless. Was this the way that Algo's most faithful servant was to meet his end?

His pace picked up a little until he was almost running. The sand in his joints squeaked and squealed, warming up and almost generating sparks. Wren did not feel exhaustion in the way that an organic being usually experienced it, but he was quite capable of feeling pain. The pain did not slow him down, rather it prompted him to move even faster.

Running made him feel better. Now it felt like he was actually heading somewhere important. His spirits may have been low, but at least he was still moving. Wren kept his eyes upon the vanishing point of the horizon, planning, checking and rechecking his route for every heavy clanking step that he took. The sky lit up all around him again but this time he didn't pause to observe the spectacle, hearing an ear-splitting shriek and detecting the presence of burning wood and smoke. One of the trees behind him had been struck by lightning and exploded.

The world seemed to slow down all around him and Wren's AI went along with it. He became aware of the tarp flapping crazily about his body and the rain pouring down in thin sheets from the sky, of the way that the puddles seemed to explode every time he trod through one with his feet. His processor was trying to grab at any little bit of information that it could, just in case it could turn the tides of war in Wren's favor. Somehow, in some way, Wren had to fight against nature itself. It was not an android's fight. He knew quite well which side had the upper hand.

An idea came to him swiftly, like a download in his head had finally come to completion. Lightning would strike at a high point and always favor metal. It was risky, but it might just work. Ignoring the discomfort in his leg joints Wren continued to run, keeping half an eye out for obstacles in his way. His one free hand reached up to his chest and then crept under his makeshift cloak, fastening onto one of his shoulder plates firmly. It was thick armor, and it also protected his precious circuitry from monsters and the rain.

Wren pulled hard and ripped the plate free from his body with a metallic tearing sound. It was large and disc-like, he held it out in front of him like it was a dangerous weapon. His shoulder felt vulnerable and unprotected without it but he would have to make do. Wren remembered a friend from seemingly long ago who had used an item like this as a weapon. He had recorded her calibrations in battle as a matter of casual interest and also to improve his interactions with her when working as a team. Wren would have never guessed that he'd utilize her combat data ever again this practically, this desperately.

The android selected an angle far out in front of him and skidded to a halt, carefully drawing back his right arm. He had to make sure that the plate of metal stayed high in the air for the longest amount of time possible. Wren steeled himself and threw the disc as expertly as he could manage, trying to mimic Kyra Tierney's body movements in his own overly large frame.

The metal left his hands and Wren was immediately running once more, following the path that his throw had plotted out. It deviated from his GPS set track slightly and that was a bit of a bother, but Wren had also had to account for the wind's direction and the ferocity of the storm. Now that it was in the air he could barely even see it anymore.

It was a small shield, but it was a shield nevertheless. Thunder exploded all around him in a supernova of sound and Wren was lifted off his feet for one single CPU-freezing second, a bolt of lightning connecting with the metal plate and melting part of it instantly, while horribly warping and charring the rest of the material. Fine points of light rained down with the water and Wren thumped hard against the ground with his shoulder, his expressly _vulnerable_ shoulder.

Something inside of him short-circuited, traumatized by the unexpected impact. Wren grunted softly and his fingers twitched, connected to his nervous system by the damaged circuits. Electricity leapt from his body and came in contact with the water all around him, spreading like fire when exposed to ample amounts of fuel. Wren convulsed, all his systems threatening to crash, pains sweeping through his body like a thorough ring of agony.

A whistle of air pierced through the sky and a thick crescent of metal speared the ground only a few feet away from where Wren lay, fused into the shape of a waxing moon by the lightning. Most of its body had been melted away. It had been tortured by the storm but it was still present, still there. It had survived. Wren opened his eyes and looked at it, his cheek pressed against the muddy dirt. A thought came to him sluggishly, an idea that he was not dissimilar. He could survive, too.

He didn't quite know how he had managed it, but Wren somehow found himself picking his body back up and standing, beyond all reason, beyond all logic. His nerves twitched regularly from an excess of electricity in his systems, but his balance was still intact. He couldn't die here now, he couldn't let Siren have his way with all of the Algo solar system. If metal could beat lightning, then Wren could beat Siren. Was one little insignificant piece of armor all it took to motivate him into action?

It seemed so. With all his systems screaming in pain Wren felt himself detached from it, picking up his tarp that had fluttered to the ground and drawing it around his body again. He moved forward at a thunderous pace, leaning down a bit to snatch up the piece of metal that he had dropped before. He should be able to use it again at least one more time.

It might have just been his shorting circuits and wires, but Wren had the slight impression that he could feel the particles of electricity gathering in the air, attempting to take form. It was something that only a machine could ever properly sense, never a living person. Wren cried out and uttered the first loud exclamation of sound that he had made in over a month. He tossed the crescent like a boomerang, throwing it into the heavens above. If he continued on like this maybe, just maybe, there was still a future left for him in Algo, no matter what that future might be.

There was still a depressingly long road ahead of him.

†††

Cold.

It is such a small, pitifully trivial expression. Mere words alone cannot express the multifaceted layers upon the true nature of cold, it is something that can never wholly be described, only felt. Rune felt the cold, deep down until it felt like his very essence was frozen solid. He was so cold that his body seemed to burn with jaded fire, bristling and burning all over. It felt like he was burning from the inside out. He was too cold to speak, too cold to shiver, almost too cold to breathe. Breathing in was like inhaling granules of poorly ground glass. Rune was trapped, caught up in a storm of his own.

The blizzard resembled the rages of Garuberk back when Dark Force had controlled the snows and the sky. A similar demon was doing the same thing again, walking in Dark Force's large and sinister footsteps. Rune had tried to stop him, others had tried too, but they had most likely met their fate as well, a unique death for each individual piece of rabble. Rune could still remember the shouts, the name that he had been called before everything had went to hell. Filthy Layan, filthy Layan.

His legs worked stiffly as they moved him onwards within the storm, sunk almost up to his knees in the rising drifts of snow. Gusts of chilly wind constantly assaulted his face until he could barely even open his eyes, his face tilted a little avoid the painful stings. He was hunched over slightly, his gloved right hand pressed tenderly against his shoulder, as if he was trying to keep himself from falling apart. Rune's long blue ponytail wavered in the storm unceasingly, the magician hearing only one long, loud sound; the perpetual howl of the storm.

There was no horizon, nothing for him to look forward to. He didn't even know where he was trying to go, all he knew was that he needed to get out of this storm before it was too late. There was no way for him to outpace it, but he still had to try. Rune gritted his teeth and willed himself not to break down, his body wanted to do it oh so dearly, but he was too important to die. Algo needed him, they needed the spirit of Lutz to keep them safe. If he died the memory of the Esper would die as well.

Rune fell. He coughed and that slight motion forced his knees to give out on him, drawing his body to the ground. He sunk into the snow like it was a bed made of goose feather, warm and inviting and safe. It was too hard to keep walking, he couldn't go on for another step. Rune stared at his knees, at how easily the storm was already trying to bury him with ice. His legs were being covered with snow at a phenomenal rate. Good, the cover would keep him warm. Smiling weakly he lost his balance and tumbled over, gladdened that he had been able to favor his better, whole shoulder.

Now he was lying on his side in a large snow drift, within the heart of Siren's artificial ice storm. He had been the largest threat, even more so than all the others. His green tunic under his cloak was darkened severely by a bloody patch spreading from his left shoulder, bleeding down his pristine clothes and seeping into the snow. In barely a minute the blood itself had also turned to ice. Siren knew that Rune would be clever enough to escape his ice storm, but he doubted he'd be able to do the same while severely wounded.

He seemed to be right. Rune believed that he was going to die. Ages earlier his legs and arms had gone completely numb, paralyzing his body and holding him there, but he had also felt in the center of his being a sort of warmth about him, caged within his chest. He thought it might have been his magical abilities, the ancient power within himself, but when he tried to twitch a hand and summon forth a Flaeli spell, _any_ spell, as long as it generated heat, he could not even muster the energy to wiggle two of his fingers. It was useless.

Rune could imagine his hands, beneath his black velvet gloves darkening and decaying as frostbite set in, stealing his spell casting digits away from him. His eyelashes, encrusted with fine powdery snow fluttered, the blue-haired esper entering into the final stages of hypothermia and the true definition of the word cold. He felt a vast numbing exhaustion taking over his body and his mind, smothering it to death with icy blasts of wind. Was this the way that the Lutz legacy was meant to fade? Lost and alone? Defeated by an enemy during a time of great peace?

He was too tired to dispute it for very long. All people were equal during the time of their death. Rune closed his eyes and made a soft moaning sound, muffled by the snow that was piled up around his face. At that point he had at last given up. Siren had won.

The storm raged on.

That had been four weeks and six days ago.

Death was always a funny, fickle thing. A person could always spend their entire life fearing death and running from it, then finally making an acceptance of reality, only to have death pass them by and then feel cheated, robbed in some vital, incomprehensible way. Rune came back to life with only a single, grouchy thought within his head, which hurt and throbbed as if it had been beaten with a thick wooden plank. Rune wished that he had not woken up at all, because at least in that darkness there had been a lack of pain.

He had been found by a Dezorian hunter and his sister during the storm, their snow moles having been savagely attracted to the smell of Rune's spilt blood. They had dug him out of the snow and had begun to maul him, ripping at his already open wound. When the hunter had seen that Rune was not only a Palman but an esper as well, he was more than content to let the moles finish their work on his abused body. It was the sister that had saved Rune's life. She drove back the moles and forced her brother to make room on the sleigh for him, wrapping him with the freshly skinned pelts of Dezoris' wild animals and then taking him to their home.

Hypothermia and frostbite had indeed worked its way very deeply into his body, doing its dirty business. It was long before Rune was able to regain consciousness again, in his long regenerative coma the hunter and his sister were forced to remove two fingers and three toes from his unresponsive body. The gunshot wound in his shoulder was fine, it was allowed to be stitched back together and proceeded to heal. It had mostly been cauterized at the time it was made, burnt clean by a laser that had removed all chances of infection.

Almost every day the Dezorian brother and sister fought over Rune's fate. Each day the brother wanted to cease Rune's treatment and toss him back into the wilderness where they found him, but the sister fought for him to stay. She was a priestess of the Gumbian faith and she could sense great power and light coming from him, the strongest that she had ever felt before. It was this sensation, even more so than the smell of blood by the snow moles that had led her to him. If such light could truly exist in a person she was certain that it had to be protected at all costs.

Rune groaned when he woke up, groaned again when he first experienced the first jabs of fresh pain, and then groaned one last time when his surroundings came into proper focus. A Dezorian hunter's hut, small, squat and unappealing. It was formed by ice and blocks of stone, thatched carefully with dried ice weeds from a nearby valley. Furs and pelts were nailed to the walls and over the windows, insulating the room somewhat, but the major source of warmth in the hut came from a fireplace set in the middle of the room, creating a minimal amount of smoke. There were small blocks of stone set around the fireplace, stools for the owners of the house to sit upon and admire the heat of the flames.

His body felt hot and cold at the same time, too hot within and too cold without. It felt like that storm will still out there somewhere, unstoppable with limitless stamina. Rune was conscious but still rife with fever, blearily he noticed that he was no longer wearing his cloak and tunic, all he was clothed with were bandages bound tightly around his shoulder and his hand. His left hand and his feet throbbed painfully under the animal furs that were his blankets. The magician had a distinct feeling that he didn't want to know the reason why. It might be too awful to contemplate.

Gently he caressed the bandages around his shoulder wound. It didn't feel nearly as bad as he had imagined it would be. It felt mostly healed. Rune looked at his right hand. It was whole and undamaged. Thank the Great Light for that.

The front door opened, or more accurately, the large animal fur that was stretched over a wide arch was brushed aside. A tall green Dezorian ducked as he tromped inside the house, covered from shoulder to toe in fine, freezing cold snow. Standing upon the threshold he began to gruffly brush it away, his long-fingered hands ploughing great tracks of brown furry pelt through the snow-encrusted surfaces, allowing it to fall unheeded to the dry ice weed floor. He had a grim, pessimistic look about him, one subject to the harsher aspects of the land. This Dezorian seemed to be no stranger to strife.

He cast a brief, withering look at Rune sitting up in bed from his peripheral vision. The esper knew that the Dezorian had seen him in the way that his body tensed for a bare fragment of a second and then continued on as if nothing significant had happened. The Dezorian's narrow, slitted eyes turned to a small coat rack that was nestled in a corner of the room. He walked towards it freely, because this was _his_ house and he was the master of it. "Awake, are you?" He asked in a curt, no nonsense tone. "Good, from now on you can find your own damn shelter. If it were up to me you'd be a frozen block of ice three miles yonder this hut, esper."

Rune was not used to being spoken to in this manner, like he was a piece of offal that had gotten stuck to the heel of this Dezorian's work boots. He may have been wracked with the heat of his fever, but Rune was still Rune. "Not much of a shelter." He said in an uneven, weak voice, the first words he had spoken in over a month. His throat felt like it had been lined with gravel and sounded accordingly.

The Dezorian took off his hunting coat, hanging it reverently on the coat rack. There were other coats there as well, some of them seeming to be tailored for a more feminine body. The Dezorian was wearing a grey padded tunic underneath his coat, insulated against the extreme cold. Whoever he was, he appeared to be quite prepared and equipped for the storms outside. He sneered spitefully. "I'd expect a smart alec remark like that from someone like you. You're all the same, filthy and arrogant."

It wasn't the animosity in those words that startled Rune badly, but the words themselves. One word, to be precise. Filthy. Somebody had recently called him that before, and it was incredibly important that he know who. The answer was just out of his reach, obscured by his fever. He was sure that he'd remember perfectly, in time. Rune put a hand to the side of his face and winced when the action hurt a lot, much more than it was supposed to. He looked at his left hand. It was bandaged tightly and something very vital to him was missing.

When the Dezorian kicked off his thick and heavy works boots, after having left puddles of melting water all over the threshold, it could be seen that he was wearing light moccasins underneath. It was protections like these that prevented the spreading of frostbite that Rune had been subjected to. He noticed Rune's surprising new discovery and smiled unkindly. "That's what you get for travelling like a moron, esper. Looks like you can only count up to eight now."

Rune turned his hand this way and that, palm up and then palm down. The ring and pinky finger of his left hand had been carefully cut away, leaving only two tiny little stumps that hurt ferociously whenever he tried to move them. He was not a left-handed magician and he supposed he should have been thankful for that one small boon, but more than ever he felt shocked and cheated. Rune was the fifth incarnation of Lutz, it didn't quite register with him on how such loss could be possible. "I…" He began, but then realised he had nothing to say, at least to this callous Dezorian.

"Gisarg! Who are you talking to?" Came a voice from outside, and a second Dezorian stepped into the safety of the hunter's small home. This one was shorter and thinner than the first, with less of a pug-like nose and with much softer features. A woman, Rune guessed, more from the way that she carried herself rather than her physical appearance. The male Dezorian seemed to shrink away from her too and that was a dead giveaway. The ghost of a smile touched Rune's lips briefly, for a few moments having been distracted from his pain and his predicament.

"Your 'project' has woken up at last. You can finally get rid of him now." Gisarg instructed, folding his arms and looking at the girl, then he gestured towards Rune with a quick tilt of his head. The girl looked towards Rune and jumped a little, as if she had never expected him to be conscious and awake. The male Dezorian huffed. "Just take him somewhere and leave him there. He takes up too much space and there's a suspicious stink about him."

"Shame on you, Gisarg. Whatever happened to your sense of charity?" She chided, hitting him gently in the arm. Her companion grunted but didn't say anything else. The female Dezorian made her way over to Rune's bedside, but not before removing her coat and boots and safely putting them away, so that they wouldn't drip water all over the hut once the scattered snow began to melt. She sat down on a chair that was situated on Rune's left. "Why don't you go and feed the sleigh moles while our guest and I have a friendly little chat?"

"What? But I just got undressed!" He growled, growing annoyed.

"Would you let your prize team starve to death?" The girl questioned, looking at the other Dezorian carefully. It was a trained expression, she had controlled him in this manner many times before. If there was one thing that Gisarg loved above all else, it was his precious sleigh moles. He would not be able to work as a monster hunter without them.

Gisarg sighed and threw up his hands in defeat, reaching for his coat again that was still hanging on its rack. It must have been frigid outside, no wonder he didn't want to go. Putting on his boots again he slipped back out into the storm, disappearing immediately into the snow, as if the weather had washed away all traces of his existence. The Dezorian turned back to Rune and smiled. She appeared to be a nice girl, if a little strange. "It's not like Gisarg is a bad person," she began, "it's just that he's had a bit of a tough life and certain things put him off. He can really be quite nice when he tries hard enough."

"…Doesn't seem like he's trying very hard." Rune rasped, hoping that if he kept on speaking his voice would improve. He felt so very stiff, sore and hot, even the rare gust of icy wind that came into the room from the bottom of the entry arch didn't seem to help. He felt grateful that he was still alive, grateful to the girl if she had had any part of it. As the other Dezorian had said, the choice to save his life had not been up to him. Thank the Light for that.

The girl brightened suddenly and then clapped her hands in delight. "You speak english!" She announced, pleased. "That's good. I was worried that you'd only know esper and I have _so_ many questions for you! What's your name? Are you from the Mansion? What were you doing out there in the wilderness in the middle of the storm? There are no villages for miles around and Gisarg and I couldn't figure out how you had gotten so far without collapsing sooner. Were you using magic?"

Rune blinked as he was pummeled with various questions. There was no way that he'd be able to answer them all in time. He raised his mutilated hand slowly, trying to get her to realise that she was talking way too fast, that she was babbling. "Hold on," he murmured, disgruntled, "my head's not on straight right now. I just woke up and it feels like somebody's roasting a turkey inside my body. I have questions too. How about we take turns, one question at a time?"

"Oh gosh… my manners, they flew right out the window. Please forgive me." The girl said apologetically, then bowed her head to him, embarrassed. "I haven't even introduced myself yet. My name is Raii Laerma and the man who was talking to you earlier is called Raii Gisarg. He is my older brother, but when it comes to who is taking care of who everything is a matter of opinion. My brother and I saved you from the storm."

She certainly talked a lot. Rune raised one eyebrow at her. "Laerma?" He asked, perplexed. "As in-"

Laerma beat him to it. She had had this conversation many times before and knew how it went. "Yes, the name means nut, nutcase, or nutshell. I like nutshell the best. I am who I am, in a nutshell. That's me." She started to giggle. Although she had clarified it to people a million times in the past, the bad joke never ceased to amuse her. The strange look on Rune's face was one of the very best she had coaxed out of people. It was uplifting. "My uncle named me. He has a rather… _unique_ sense of humor. What's your name, esper?"

When Gisarg had said the word 'esper' he had pronounced it like he had been exhaling toxic fumes, spitting the word out like a hairball. Laerma pronounced it differently, in her voice it sounded distinctly musical. She did not seem to hate espers as badly as her brother. "My name is Rune. It means an ancient pictogram alphabet. The espers use runic as a tool in order to transcribe their knowledge onto paper, and that is where I got my name. Not as witty as yours, I'm afraid." Rune held up his bandaged hand again. "How did this happen?" He asked, referring to it.

"When we brought you back here both your hands had gone completely black from frostbite. Your feet, too. I used all the blessings and prayers that I had in order to exorcise the plague demon of ice from your body, and I did manage to purify most of it out of your system, but in the end Gisarg had to cut away at the dead flesh. I'm sorry, Rune. If my powers had been greater you would have been entirely cured."

He felt a strangely sick sensation erupt in the pit of his stomach when he imagined how much fun Gisarg must have had at hacking away at his fingers and toes. He tried to put a good face on things, because at least Laerma had tried to help. He wasn't exactly good at comforting people though, in fact he royally sucked at it. Rune grinned feverishly. "Hey, if it weren't for you two I would have wound up being a perfectly preserved glacial fossil. I was lucky enough that you turned out to be a priestess. You _are_ a priestess, aren't you? Us espers can smell holy light from miles away."

"A Gumbian priestess." She agreed, relaxing a little because Rune didn't seem to blame her for the loss of his digits. "Espers aren't the only ones that can smell out holy light, our priesthood can do it pretty good as well. I've sensed espers before from afar, they burn like they bear an inner flame. But while I was out in the middle of the blinding storm, when I passed by the drift that hid your body I suddenly felt like I had walked into the sun." The green-skinned girl paused, looking thoughtfully at the ceiling. "There's a big difference between a pyre and the sun. What were you doing out there in the middle of nowhere?"

"…These are storms that are as bad as the storms of Garuberk, maybe even worse. The temperature will drop until all Palmans on this planet will die from the cold. It nearly killed me, so I'm guessing that that point must be getting pretty close. It won't stop there. The climate will slowly continue to worsen until the Dezorians are gone too, and then all possible life on this planet will cease to exist. I was trying to stop that from happening, but I was beaten and punished," Rune carefully touched his healing gunshot wound without much thought, "and was dropped down here to die."

"Great Light," Laerma whispered in a small hushed voice, "who would do such a thing? Why?"

Rune knew who but couldn't quite put his finger on it at the time. The first person who came to mind was Wren, but that couldn't be right because Wren was one of the good guys. Sure, the android could be a little dull and boring at times, but that didn't make him bad. Still, for a moment Rune couldn't get the thought of the Wren-type out of his mind. He shook his head, trying to clear the thoughts away. "I... can't remember right now." He admitted, hating the idea that the reverent Lutz had temporarily lost a few of his marbles.

Luckily Gisarg had performed his chore relatively quickly, re-entering the hut in the nick of time. He had looked relatively bitter beforehand, but now he was positively surly. He didn't bother to remove his coat or his boots, yet he stood beyond the hut's entrance arch with the pelt of animal fur falling closed behind him. "There goes my half hour of rest and relaxation," he muttered in a low tone, "come on, Laerma. We have to leave now if we want to be in time for the evening Mass. You can talk to your pet esper later."

The 'pet esper' immediately came to the conclusion that what Gisarg _really_ needed was a good strong Tandle where the sun didn't shine. He had a great many scathing comments that he could deliver with ease, but chose not to act because no matter _what_ he was called he still owed these people his life. Without taking his eyes off Gisarg he said to Laerma in a quiet voice; "Go ahead. I'm not going anywhere for now. Maybe my memory will be better once you get back. By the way…"

The Dezorian girl leaned in closer to listen to his whispering. "Yes?" She asked.

"I want to kick your brother off a cliff."

She snorted away a burst of potential laughter and stood, answering him out loud. "You have _no idea_ how many people have told me that." She chimed, looking at Rune happily. "You'll tell me the rest when I get back, right? Don't forget!"

Laerma seemed to have some kind of strange gift. Even though Rune was in pain, even though he was lost and annoyed and unsure of what to do, the girl was succeeding in putting him in a good mood. "I won't forget." He replied, raising a hand to wave goodbye, but then he realized that it was hard to wave with only three fingers so he switched to his right.

The moles were barking impatiently outside. Their grey-white fur blended them in perfectly with the storm, but Gisarg had excellent eyesight and could tell them all apart from yards away. He had fed them their meal of snow worm entrails and had lashed them back into their sleigh. Travel by snow mole was really the only method left for getting across places in Dezoris, walking was now simply impossible. Laerma hopped into the sleigh's frontal crib and covered herself over with protective furs, safeguarded against the ice and the wind. She huddled into the smallest ball that she could manage and waited.

Gisarg unraveled his taming whip and cracked it expertly in the air, testing it out. If his voice couldn't be heard over the howling gusts of wind his whip would certainly do the job. He stepped onto the forked wooden rail attached to the back of the sleigh, designed for the driver to stand on. The male Dezorian cried out a word in his native tongue harshly, almost loud enough to sound like a scream. The whip lashed out and struck the head mole against the back of its neck, lightly and quickly, stinging for only a few short seconds. He wanted to get their attention, not hurt them.

The sleigh slowly began to creak into life as his team of half a dozen moles started to pull against their harnesses. It was the starting that was the hardest part, once the sleigh built up some momentum everything would be as easy as pie. Gisarg held on tightly with his free hand, still ready with the whip if one of his team decided to slack off today. They rarely did. After all, each of the moles already knew that Jut was a refreshing run away. This was part of their daily schedule.

Back at the hut Rune had laid down again, still hurting, still fatigued, but not forgotten. There were still people alive on this icy planet. The enemy had not won yet. Rune may have been a filthy Layan or whatever the hell it was that he had been called, but he was still alive. That was a victory for the good guys in itself.

And Rune was burning for revenge.

†††

Wren was a total mess by the time he got to the doors of Motavia's only spaceport.

He was heavily favoring one leg and limping as he walked, his back bent and his shoulders hunched as if he were carrying a great invisible burden. The waterproof tarp around his body was more ragged than ever and barely offered him even minimal protection now, while his ripped and ravaged body was soaked and sparking with electricity. His restorative functions had not kicked in like they were supposed to, hours ago, and that meant serious trouble. Life-threatening trouble, if possible. Wren walked to the doors of the spaceport slowly, but when he reached its cold metal surface he did not open it, instead he leant forward, face-first against the door, touching synthetic flesh to steel.

This was what it felt like to have hit rock bottom. To have gone so far and done so much that when he finally found safety and a physical reprieve from pain, the only sort of feeling that he could muster from the pit of his neural matrix was an empty sensation of deepening despair. The entry to the spaceport was shaded by a futuristic sort of verandah roofing, but Wren was still quite aware of the puddle of water that he was spreading all over the floor. The makeshift cloak he had been wearing fell to the ground once he had finally let go. His cybernetic body underneath it was greatly stripped of its armor and any other detachable pieces of metal, because he had been forced to sacrifice a lot in order to make it through the storm.

He had literally gotten very close to pulling himself apart. Wren twitched and stood up again in order to get a quick look at his surroundings. He had had quite enough of nature to last him another century or two. The lights of the spaceport were out. That was a bad sign. Wren punched his access code into the electric door lock but knew it was a fruitless effort even before he had finished. The screen didn't light up as it was meant to do when his metal fingers brushed against the touch-activated surface. It seemed like all power had been cut out.

There was too much electricity in the weather and none at all where it was meant to be. Wren took a step back and regarded the door carefully, trying to deduce if the door had a hydraulic release system installed. That sort of system was standard issue in space stations and orbiting weather satellites, but he wasn't quite sure if the expense had been made on the ground-based facilities. If that system was not installed then Wren believed that he could simply wrench the doors apart with his bare hands. If he was unlucky, however, then he would not be able to budge it an inch. Not only nature, but technology _itself_ would be working against him.

Wren flexed the metallic muscles and tendons in his arms and struck the two doors in the center of where they met, split along its seam. It crunched and molded against his hard fist, crumpling like mere tinfoil. The impact made a low hollow booming sound, a singular percussion in the midst of near silence. The only other sound was the pouring rain. Wren pulled his hand away and was satisfied to see that a small hole had opened up between the two closed doors, large enough for him to fit his fingers inside. The android balanced his weight evenly within his body and braced his feet against the ground, getting ready for the inevitable strain.

He fit one hand against each side of the door and pulled. At first he felt nothing and was assured of the fact that he had been right, hydraulics had been installed on Motavia and all his efforts were for naught. He experienced a scalding, searing pain in one arm as a flayed tendon in his body snapped and sent a lance of white hot fire through his nervous system, clenching around his forearm and his knuckles. Wren persisted hopelessly, despite the pain. In the end the door had been caught against a slip in the lower rail of the floor, a simple system falling into disrepair because of lack of use.

Once Wren had worked his way around the catch the doors opened easily, bending smoothly to the force of his will. The android stumbled inside and didn't bother to close the doors again, - that would have been far too much work. It was a huge relief to have a roof over his head once more, to be protected from the lightning and the rain. Wren ran a hand through his wet black hair and looked into the dark dead hallways, seeing every nook and cranny with ease. It was still night time on the planet of Motavia and his night vision was still very much in effect.

He limped around trying to find a terminal that had an ethernet connection to the outside world, beyond the radius of the storm. Wren had managed to secure his top priority in the light of this recent crisis, namely, his own temporary survival, and now he could drop back down to priority two, to establish communication between himself and his friends. He didn't know if they had survived past the advent of their, of _his_ horrible failure, but he hoped that they had. He didn't want to be the only one left alive, not he who had started this whole mess in the first place. He, perhaps, who had caused it all nearly a thousand years ago with the single pull of a trigger.

Wren found a serviceable computer after a few minutes of searching and was completely unsurprised to find that it was out of power, utterly dead. He opened the power point hidden in the underside of his upper arm, usually reserved to power his weapon and extended a long black cable, connecting himself to the power board of the computer. If the terminal had no backup battery to leech energy from, then _he_ would just have to be its battery instead. Wren knew his limits, he would sever the connection before the strain on his body became too great.

The computer coughed into life. Wren felt a faint daze come upon him from the theft of his artificial life-blood but ignored it. Swiftly his hands worked on the terminal keys, accessing the emergency broadcast system. He could send a signal to each of Algo's support systems, except for Zelan, and just hope fervently that the others were stationed at one of those other systems. It was more than likely that Zelan would pick up his pirate broadcast no matter _what_ he did to safeguard against it, but he still had to try.

"Hel-lo, this is de-designation For-ren mod-el one th-thousand and eighty th-three cal-ling Ch-az Ash-ley. Cal-ling Ch-az Ash-ley. De-designation For-ren mod-el one th-thousand and eighty th-three cal-ling Rune Wal-sh. Cal-ling Ri-ka. Cal-ling Ha-hn Mah-lay. Can anybody he-ar me? Please re-spond. This is an emer-gency. De-designation For-ren mod-el one th-thousand and eighty th-three re-requests aid. Please re-respond…"

He was probably talking into the darkness, talking to the ghosts of the dead. He could hear in his own damaged voice that he was more broken than he originally thought. It was useless. Nobody would respond. Wren was about to pull the plug on the computer terminal with a heavy heart when a second screen popped up, one that he had not asked for himself. It was a reply.

The first thing that showed up on the reply screen was the background of a support facility, huge thick metal walls that were not only holding up the building, but were also part of an immeasurably large computer as well. The lights were low, dim and pulsing in the background. Over there the power was still on. A rustling sound came from the computer's speakers and he heard a faintly slurred voice, of one either heavily drunk or immensely tired. "Now, when you mean model one thousand and eighty three, what exactly do you mean? Who is this? If you are one of Siren's androids I can trace you."

_Any_ reply was better than none at all. Wren all of a sudden understood that he was using terms that none of his friends would be able to understand, an old distress signal programmed into him after the Great Collapse. He berated himself for his foolishness. "Ne-gative." He replied, hoping that they would hear him out. "Th-is is Wr-en of Ze-lan cal-ling his fri-ends. Wr-en of Ze-lan begs a res-ponse. Please re-ply."

Somebody sat down in front of the computer screen. It took Wren a moment longer than usual to judge that this man was Hahn Mahlay. He looked nothing like his former self. He was easily twenty pounds lighter and appeared ten years older than the last time Wren had seen his face, with dark circles under his eyes and several days of unchecked growth on his chin. It looked like Wren was not the only one who had suffered over the past month. The one thing Hahn needed most in the world right now was a hot meal and a good night's rest.

He leant forward and looked closely at the android standing in front of the computer terminal, the bright light of the monitor washing over his body and face in the dark room. It did indeed look a lot like Wren, his friend, but the android seemed to be a little bit smaller, less intimidating. His wet black hair was plastered to his face and cheeks and his body appeared to be dusted with damp sand and dirt. Wren had gone missing weeks ago. Hahn had presumed him dead or destroyed. The scholar sat back in his chair and tried to figure out what to do. "I've seen a lot of different androids since Zelan was taken over," he admitted with a deep sigh, "how can I be sure you are who you say you are? You don't look right, and you don't sound right either."

He didn't sound right because his sound card was damaged and probably cracked. He didn't look right either because the charred and melted remains of his Guardian armor were scattered all about the Kadary plains. Wren felt a sense of annoyed anger swell up from inside of him, directed at the wasted form of his friend. He didn't run through an electrical storm pulling his body to pieces just so that Hahn would have the luxury of refuting him! This anger was very unlike him, he forced it away before it became evident on his face.

Instead Wren tried to think of a way to prove his identity to his friend. He remembered Rykros and the five treasures that they had been made to keep safe. Wren was still wearing his, he hadn't taken it off since the very moment it had been entrusted into his care. It was quite special to him, it reminded him of his distant origins. He held the back of his hand up to the computer screen, drawing attention to it. The android stared at Hahn grimly. "D-Do you recog-nise th-this, Ha-hn?" He asked.

It was a ring. Fixed in a band of pure white laconia lay a small perfectly round opal, coloured in swirls of green, blue and white. It was the third Ring of the Stars, out of a set of five. The Palma ring, symbol of great life and great loss. The astral entities had given it to him long ago, and only Wren could wear it, nobody else. It was oddly ironic in a way, that the ring of life had to be worn by somebody who had so little of it himself. Hahn looked well upon the laconia ring, a small smile spreading across his face. With it came the old semblance of the original Hahn, faint but definitely there. "Well I'll be damned," he muttered softly, "it really _is_ you, Wren! Where have you been all this time? We thought you were gone!"

"I am n-not qu-ite sure of th-that my-self at th-the mo-ment." Wren explained carefully, aware that he needed to be brief. He couldn't keep the computer terminal on for much longer. "I am hea-vily dam-aged and in ne-ed of seri-ous re-pair. My lo-cation is th-the space-port sou-th ea-st of Ka-dary. Please hur-ry, I mu-st sev-er th-the con-nection now."

"Hey, wait a minute!" Hahn exclaimed sharply, standing up from his chair right before Wren was about to pull the plug on the terminal, prompting the android to pause and listen. The scholar was grinning now. "You said the spaceport, right? That's barely an hours' walk from here! Chaz, Rika and I are hiding out in Nurvus! Why don't you come down here and we can have a little reunion together? I'll go wake up the other two." He turned to leave.

"Th-That is n-not poss-ible."

"Huh? Why not?"

"It is rain-ing hea-vily out-side. M-My rest-orative equip-ment is bro-ken. I would d-die if ex-posed a-gain to th-the rain." He reasoned, then added as a short afterthought; "Please come so-on."

He pulled the plug. The screen went dead at the very moment in which Hahn opened his mouth to reply. The young scholar had looked like a wraith, a refugee from some horrible and evil war. What would Chaz and Rika look like? Would they be the same? Also, Wren had noticed that Hahn had not said a word about Demi, even though they were using her adopted facility as a base. It meant that she was still missing in action, just as he had been. That was very, _very_ troubling. She was vital to keeping Motavia stable.

Wren retracted the power cable back into his body and stared blankly at the dead screen. Demi, Rune and himself had been captured at the same time while the others had escaped. Perhaps she had met a fate similar to his, to be pushed into the salty Motavia ocean. He had been pushed by the hand of a friend, by the hand of a traitor. Never in a thousand years had he expected to see that face again, now so full of hatred.

Siren was to blame for it all.

Slowly, with the gait of an old man waiting to die, Wren, the former control android of the space station Zelan and caretaker of the Algo solar system limped over to the wall and leant his back against it, the strength voluntarily leaving his legs. He slid down lower and lower until he found himself sitting on the cold floor. He was broken all right, broken in more ways than one.

In a remarkable show of emotive body language, Wren leant forward and held his head in his hands, waiting silently and counting down the minutes until his friends came.

†††

All Rune could do was sleep.

The Dezorians had taken his clothes earlier while he had been in his coma and the blue-haired esper didn't relish the thought of walking about in the nude, especially on a chilly planet such as this. Rune had been born and raised here on Dezoris, he knew the place like the back of his hand, but no Palman in the history of Algo would ever be able to become completely accustomed to the cold. Rune liked to think that he was one of the very few that came close.

But the bed was a hundred times more inviting than the thought of anywhere else so Rune rolled over onto his side and curled himself up into a half fetal position, pulling the fur covers over his head to block out any outside noises. Once he fell asleep his dreams were vivid and fragmented, drawing upon his own memory and the memories of all the Lutzes that had come before his time. In the midst of all that there was a figure made of steel, an ancient golem from a forgotten time and a forgotten place, who's only true discernable feature was his mussed-up hair, as red as the fires of hell.

The figure had grabbed him and Rune had been unable to put up any kind of resistance, as frozen as a dummy found commonly in the nature of dreams. The pressure on his arm was so great that he felt the bone snap under the golem's strength. Rune roared in pain and ripped himself away from that grasp, stepping backwards and falling off a cliff.

Two Wren-type androids were facing one another, one smaller than the other. The bigger Wren had his gun pointing at the smaller Wren's face, and that androids was trembling violently, like a scared living being. _'Goodbye.'_ The big Wren said and fired, blowing apart his companion's head and sending a scattering of positronics and microchips all over the ground.

Rika sitting cross-legged upon the floor, lacking her claws and battle gear, crying into her cupped hands that were pressed against her face. Chaz Ashley sprawled on the ground, unconscious, blood pouring from his nose and his right hand, impaled upon his own sword. A spaceship, bigger than any he had ever seen before. It reminded him of an entire planet. Vague snatches of words from another world, spoken with an echo. _'Hey Rune! Try jumping! Maybe you'll fly away!'_

Finally the esper saw Demi tied to a metal chair with thick chains around her hands, arms and feet, the small android leaning forwards and to the side a bit, her artificial eyes bright with fear. _'I'm not a filthy Layan!' _She shouted and Rune was shouting with her, _through_ her, both with the same frantic thoughts on their minds.

The golem walked away into the swirling mists of his dream, his gun in one hand and a severed Palman arm in the other, dripping blood. He was laughing.

Siren.

Rune was gently shaken awake by a pair of delicate green-skinned hands. It was night time when he opened his eyes, annoyed that his sleep had been broken but glad that his dreams had come to an end. The room was bathed in candlelight, bathed in a low warm glow. Rune blinked slowly. Siren. That was right. It all had to do with Siren. He remembered now. Those foul memories were almost like a physical headache, a needle in his mind. He couldn't believe that he had almost forgotten _everything_, everything that had happened since the advent of the disaster.

Laerma was looking over Rune, worried. Her big brother had dropped her off home after Mass had ended and he himself had gone out drinking with some of his friends from the town. He would not be coming home until the middle of the night and she had hoped to hear Rune's story in the meantime, before he got back. Instead she had found the esper tossing and turning in his sleep, moaning out noises that were almost words, but not quite. The only thing she could think of to do was to wake him, break him free of the nightmares. Laerma had thought that people with so much light in their souls _never_ had nightmares, but she guessed she was wrong. Maybe it made them susceptible to the darkness even more so.

"Are you okay?" The girl asked meekly, pulling her hands away as Rune sat up in bed. He was looking down upon the covers and holding his mouth with one hand, as if he feared that he was going to be violently ill. His light blue eyes looked intensely afraid. Laerma wondered if he had noticed that she was even there. "Rune? Are you alright?"

"It's all fallen apart…" He whispered in a soft tone of voice, then tilted his head towards the Dezorian priestess sitting beside him. Rune seemed to gather his bearings then. He smiled, covering up whatever it was that had terrified him earlier. When Rune was afraid he iced over those feelings with a sheet of cool indifference. It worked well without, but not within. "Uh, never mind. Thanks for waking me up. I think I've slept enough to last me for a long while, don't you think? What's up?"

"I was just wondering if you'd tell me your story now that Gisarg isn't here. Is your memory any better?" She questioned as she lit a candle with two fingers, calling up the fire using her faith and her force of will, instead of matches or flint and tinder. The flame had a pale, unnatural glow about it. It was Dezorian magic, a prayer light that would dispel the darkness. Laerma hoped that it would ward against further nightmares. She held the candle in both of her hands as if it was a holy artifact.

"It's clearer than it was before." He explained, smiling ironically. "Actually, that's not quite true. I guess it all would become as clear as a bell if I worked through it all over again from scratch, but it is, as they say, a long story. It's not a very pleasant one, either. Are you sure you want to hear about it?"

Laerma was unperturbed. "I'm very interested." She said, like those small words would explain everything in the world. "It's not just a casual interest. You're suffering from something deep inside yourself and not even the limitless light that permeates through your body can hide it. Even though you have escaped from great suffering people who remember and regret are rarely free. Talking about the past can help a lot, and besides," she smiled, "everybody says that I talk way too much. It's about time I started to listen."

Could she really _see_ that, right when Rune had only just discovered that darkness himself? That was the difference between an esper and a priest, espers focussed on the refinement of the body and the mind, while priests focussed on the purity of the heart and soul. Perhaps a confession was exactly what he needed. "Alright." Rune said, giving in. "Where should I start?"

Pleased, Laerma started to beam. She was looking forward to many fine hours of storytelling and the chance to help this man. "Just start at the beginning, and when you get to the end," she giggled, "stop."

Those words sounded familiar, like it was a famous quote. She was a nutcase alright. "Well, like most huge stories, it all started with a feeling." He said.

"A feeling?"

"Yeah. A feeling of doom."


	2. Shepherd's Warning

**Logos**

On the entire planet of Dezoris only one valley was warm.

The Myst valley held a secret that only few knew about and fewer still understood. Rune Walsh spent quite a lot of time there as Algo's spiritual guardian, keeping a watchful eye on Dezoris and the people within it, whilst carefully refining his spell casting art. Rune was not too keen on going back into cryogenic hibernation like his previous four incarnations had done so before him, but the magician knew that the espers needed him badly as an ideal, a high-standing concept to put their faith and hopes into, rather than a physical being. If he stayed in the Mansion for too long the immaculate image of the Lutz would eventually crumble. He was not a perfect person, he would do more good to his people if he were hidden, absent for a long while.

Rune had never much liked the Mansion anyway. He had been brought there as a young child and raised to be a proper incarnation; for the longest time he had known nothing else. The Myst valley was so much better in the fact that it was warm and friendly, secret to the world and protected by the spirit of an old friend. Rune spent long days and nights there sleeping surrounded by the furry closeness of numerous musk cats, training his body and mind in the mornings and meditating in the afternoons, looking over the two worlds and also the terrain of his own spirit. The evenings were the times that Rune looked forward to most of all, filled with hour upon hour of enlightening conversation, for the old man of the Myst valley had over two thousand years of accumulated wit to share.

Warmth about the valley, a place to stay, a sleeping musk cat curled up in his lap (that _definitely_ brought his memory back a few thousand years into the past), and good company. These were only a few of the thousands of things that he had fought for in the last war against the darkness, but these were the things that brought him comfort and were what he had honestly earned. It was the beginning of a new millennia, a time of great peace.

Yet peace does not fall upon a civilization overnight, it is a slow and steady process, a struggle, just as a moth struggles to free itself from a discarded cocoon. Wars were still to be fought on a much smaller scale, and although the battles were to be miniscule in comparison to the fight for Algo's future, won three years past, it made them no less deadly. Perhaps it made them deadlier, because of the false sense of security that they spun. He did not know it at the time, but Rune was slated to suffer more than he had ever suffered before, more than he could ever possibly imagine. In a time of great peace, the Lutz was fated to be brought down humbly to his knees.

It was all just a matter of time.

Time, and space.

It started with a feeling. It was nothing more than an odd nuance around about the time that he woke up in his bedroll during the break of the day, in a small chamber of the valley that he increasingly referred to as his hermitage. He had brought minimal provisions and possessions with him not because a vow of poverty would give him a greater scope of mind, but because the esper couldn't be damned carrying a hundred and one things with him when he went roving all over the planet. Rune had his stave, a couple of changes of clothing, toiletries, some curative items and food, a blanket, a few other trinkets and lastly a little something that the native Dezorians called a billy set.

In the morning Rune filled it with water as he usually did and reawakened the fire with a brief wave of his hand, the dead ashes and half-burnt wood erupting into fiery life again. As the water started to bring to the boil the esper tossed in a handful of tea leaves and yawned, waiting for the light of the Algo star to creep into the outer valley and bring with it its warmth. It had been many mornings in which he had performed this sleepy ritual, and sometimes, if not half the time, he would be unable to remember what day it was. The valley was beautiful but it had that kind of effect on people, for it was all too easy to lose track of the time.

It was the third year of the third millennium, of that Rune was quite certain. So many millennia and yet so little time, it made him feel young and tremendously old at the same time. He stood and left the safety of his cavern overlooking the outside of the valley. As soon as he did a cold and chilly wind slapped him in the face, leaving the sudden flush of rosy red in his cheeks. The wind certainly stung today, it erased all traces of sleep from his body in an instant.

A limitless mountain range stretched out high above Rune's head, not only peaked but _blanketed_ with snow, ice clinging to the slopes like a second skin. Dezoris. His home. Rune brushed his unbound hair out of his face and smiled, turning back towards his cavern and entering it again. He had an odd buzzing feeling in the back of his head that he just barely registered, but that was nothing bad enough for him to fret over. A few minutes later he returned to his watchful post, this time with a small chipped cup of steaming tea in his hands. He was waiting for it, waiting for it all to begin.

Algo rose over the crest of the mountain ranges. It was already bright morning upon some of the flatter areas of Dezoris, but the Myst valley had to wait in order to receive its token sunrise. It was worth the wait. A bright aura of golden light touched upon the outline of the mountain and grew, swelling up to a glistening halo, the ice on the mountainsides reflecting the light from the sun. The sky above it was lightening and turned into a wide smear or orange-reds and pinks. The clouds were soaking full of that faded colour.

Rune became mindful of an old saying he had heard years ago, when he had been younger and exploring Motavia with an inexperienced Alys Bragwin by his side. They must have been in an old stock town back then, probably at some place near Nalya where the land had once been fertile. The sheep shepherds had a saying, an old wives tale that had kept them righteous when the superstition came true. Red sky at night, shepherd's delight. Red sky in the morning, shepherd's warning.

He rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably, taking a sip of his scalding hot tea. It was nonsense, of course, and only the shepherds had believed such silly tales. But was Rune not a shepherd of his own variety, except that his flock was that of the esper people, no, maybe all the people of Algo? Rune smiled guiltily around the rim of his teacup, if he started thinking like _that_ he would turn into one of the boring old dullards that he so despised. If he began to believe in old wives tales he might as well move onto tea leaf reading as well. He looked down into the bottom of his cup. All he saw were clumps of green mush. Good.

He flung those dregs over the edge of the balcony with the quick flick of a wrist, resolving to get properly changed and begin his physical training within the hour, intent to get his body all warmed up before the harsher cold set in. Rune straightened up from leaning against the cave mouth and heard an angry yowl emanate from beyond the lower ridge, a hissing and spitting sound following afterwards.

An orange musk cat leapt over the small edge of the balcony after paddling up from the concealed path that stretched down into the interior of the valley. It had left a trial of tiny paw prints behind it as it walked. The cat's usually proud long ears were flattened and drooping against its skull, clumps of strained tea leaves clinging to its fur. It looked at Rune reproachfully as it reached the safety of the cave's mouth, settling down onto its haunches. It seemed to be none too impressed.

Rune rarely saw the musk cats leave the safety of their warm valley. He didn't usually get visitors, if he wanted to talk to any of the cats he had to go and see them himself. This cat meowed in annoyance and began to groom itself, trying to wash out the tea leaves and the warm water that would soon turn cold. "That's a fine way to say good morning." It said in a huff, licking one of its forepaws and cleaning behind its ears.

"I didn't see you there." Rune answered in his usual tone; cold, aloof and slightly sarcastic. Even living the life of a hermit wouldn't be enough to drain that particular brand of haughtiness from his veins. It was the truth however, he hadn't known the cat was there until he had heard the yowling. Being the Lutz made him a perceptive person, but not so early in the mornings. He squatted a bit, lessening the height between them. "What're you doing up here so early? Did you come to see the sunrise?"

The cat opened its eyes and blinked at him. The thin slits of its eyes dilated a little in the darker shadow of the cave. There was a fire inside but it didn't banish the low darkness, rather, it caused the flickering shadows to dance. "No, I was sent here by the old man as a messenger. I came all the way up from his chamber myself. He wants to see you right away. It's supposed to be terribly urgent."

Urgent enough to break Rune's deep-rooted schedule? He always met with his old friend in the evenings and not in the mornings. Whatever it was, it was important enough to send this cat out of the inner Myst valley, important enough not to be able to wait until nightfall. The esper considered carefully, reaching out and pulling away a soft string of tea leaf that was dangling from the tip of the musk cat's right ear. "Did he say what it was about?" He asked, curious.

"All he said was that you would already know about it by the time that I reached you." The cat meowed, rising to all four legs once it was clean and fresh again. It wasn't snowing, but the musk cat seemed to be none too pleased about the layer of cold snow that was already blanketing the ground. It numbed its sensitive little paws. Rune wore a guarded expression, unable to confirm what the cat had said. He _did_ have a very odd feeling this morning, but that was all it was - a feeling. "Are you coming?" The messenger pressed.

Without saying anything Rune turned and walked back into his hermitage at a leisurely pace. The musk cat knew better than to rush the reverent Fifth so it waited anxiously out in the snow, contenting itself at the moment by staring off into the spectacular virgin sky. It was rare that such bloody sunrises graced the planet of ice. It must be some kind of omen, the cat thought, a bad one.

After about fifteen minutes of waiting Rune emerged from the cave neatly brushed and washed, wearing a clean set of magician's clothing. His laconia stave was held proudly in his right hand. "Let's go." He said sternly, walking towards the edge of the crest that concealed the path. He waved the ball of his staff in the air slightly in order to attract the little messenger's attention. "I'm not going to keep the old man waiting."

All the cat could really do was nod silently and follow him, trailing from behind.

†††

Myau wasn't sitting down patiently and awaiting Rune's arrival as he usually did, curled up upon his pedestal with his soft yellow paws tucked under his chest. This time Rune met the elder of the musk cats as he was pacing about the room anxiously, wandering from one side to the other in deep thought and then repeating the process over and over again. The smaller, younger musk cats that he protected had gathered into one of the corners of the chamber and huddled together like they were young kittens once more, their bright eyes peeking out at their leader in worry and dismay. Myau was calmer now than he had been before; his fur no longer stood on end and he had stopped talking to himself, knowing that once Rune arrived he'd have somebody better to converse with.

He had been dusted with light snow when he had entered the inner caverns of the Myst vale, but by the time that Rune reached Myau's chamber the snow had already melted upon him refreshingly, giving him both a wet cloak and a greater sharpness of mind. He had had an hour to wonder about all the reasons for which Myau might have called him for and his head was filled with all the many possibilities, most of them bad ones. As Rune stepped into the chamber and saw his friend his fears were instantly confirmed, because _nobody_ could look as Myau did and still be bearing good news.

Rune didn't know whether to dispense with the pleasantries or not, concerning the situation. The musk cat that had guided him here wandered from Rune's heel towards the corner of the room containing the other cats, wishing to cuddle up again its brothers and sisters and never go out into the snowfields again. The esper didn't notice his companion's departure. He clicked the end of his stave against the ground to catch everybody's attention, then smiled reassuringly. "Good morning, old friend. You wanted to speak to me? Here I am."

The ancient musk cat turned his head towards the esper almost hungrily and then seemed to relax, the tensions in his shoulders loosening. Myau smiled and then walked away from him, climbing the small steps made for the littler members of his clan. He circled the pedestal a few times and sat down carefully, silently bidding Rune to approach him. He needed to keep his composure over this, for he had already startled his innocent underlings. Once Rune knew what he knew no doubt the magician would act as Myau had, in which case the winged musk cat needed to be prepared to calm Rune down.

"Noah." He acknowledged in a deep and matured voice, one that did not quite match with his soft and fuzzy outer shell. He lowered his head a little in an impromptu version of a bow, closing his eyes for a moment. They were both very old friends, but because of their high-standing position they had to treat each other with the utmost respect. Sometimes it felt like a mighty big nuisance. "Come forward and take a seat. I am sorry if my messenger woke you up and for calling you here so early in the morning, but I think we urgently need to talk. It is very important."

That was basically what the messenger had said, but coming directly from Myau the information seemed all the more serious. He had never seen Myau pace about like that, too. It was unnerving. Rune did as was instructed and sat down before the steps that led up to Myau's altar, laying his staff down by his side. It meant he had to look up a little in order to speak to Myau eye to eye, but he was used to sitting here in the evenings and talking with him. "Please don't call me Noah." He said softly as he got settled down. "You know I hate that. My name is Rune. So what's up? You looked like somebody's walked all over your grave."

Such impertinence! Rune never changed. Well, he guessed he could tolerate it because he often slipped back into using the name of his predecessor. At least they were used to each other enough not to take offense. Myau would have raised an eyebrow at Rune if he had one. The blue-haired magician seemed to have no awareness of the situation at hand. That was really strange. Of all the people in the Algo solar system Rune should have been the first one to spot the problem, not the last. It was only early in the morning, yes, but had he become _that_ detached after only three short years? "Something is walking over Algo's grave, something with very heavy feet. Don't you feel it in your head, in your heart, in your very bones?"

Huh, a grave. That was pretty much what Algo was these days, two dying planets orbiting an apathetic star. It wasn't much, but it was theirs. The solemnity of Myau's words made it sound like Algo's termination was drawing near. That was silly, though. This was the new millennium, a period of growth. The notion that he seemed to be ignorant didn't please him much, either. People usually didn't get away with suggesting something like that to him. Rune shook his head and in doing so was reminded of the faint alien buzzing in the back of his skull. "I don't feel much of anything terrible that you seem to be sensing. All I have is this really strange feeling, sort of like déjà vu but just not quite."

Myau laughed. It was not quite the right time or place for laughter but if it didn't lighten the mood at least it offered the elder some relief. He watched one of the smaller and younger musk cats from the colony leave its safe corner where all the others were hiding and approached Rune quietly, trying not to make a sound. It probably wanted some attention from the familiar esper, and it was too much of a kitten to know that he was receiving special counsel. "Déjà vu is probably the best term that I can think of right now. Déjà vu and possibly precognition. Have you seen the vast sea of Algo, Rune? The reservoir beyond this physical world wherein each individual is only a single drop of water?"

Rune nodded without hesitation. "Of course I have. It's my job to make sure that reservoir doesn't run dry or taint. The bad weather and the black energy wave kept it pitifully low, but in a few decades things will slowly begin to improve again, once the new generations are born." He wasn't quite speaking as a metaphor. In his meditations he had indeed seen that sea somewhere within the collective unconsciousness of life, had tasted it, had been immersed in it. He himself was part of it, just a tiny water droplet, but so were they all.

The musk kitten was sniffing Rune's cloak curiously. Without thinking much on what he was doing he picked it up gently and plopped the affectionate creature into his lap. The kitten squeaked as it was handled but calmed itself quickly when it realised that it wasn't in any form of danger. On the contrary, it started to purr contentedly as Rune began to stroke its orange fur. "And when was the last time you looked deeply into that sea? Was it during your last meditation session? Did you have that strange feeling back then?" Myau asked.

That had been early yesterday afternoon, and no, he had felt perfectly fine. All had been well. Rune narrowed his eyes a little, focussing. There had been nothing then, just calmness and a great peace. The waters had been cool and still. Besides, had there been the slightest disruption of that stillness Rune knew that he would have felt it, right in his gut. He was extremely sensitive to that sort of thing. It was what he had been bred for, after all. "I didn't feel a thing then and I don't think that would be the problem now. I can sense turbulence in the reservoir weeks before it actually happens. If that was the case I would have been informed ages ago."

"You wear your pride like a blindfold sometimes." Was Myau's answer and it got under Rune's skin a little more deeply than it should have. The winged musk cat shifted forward a bit, planting his paws on the first step of the altar. "Now is one of those times. I didn't suggest at all that there was any kind of turbulence in Algo's life stream, I was merely referencing it in general. But there _is_ something horribly, terribly wrong with it. Perhaps you should go into your meditation now and see. I could explain it to you, but it's really something that you need to see for yourself."

The kitten lifted its head up from Rune's knee and mewed softly, wondering why the magician had stopped petting it. "A blindfold, hm?" He said in an unreadable tone, having clearly taken offense but not sure what to do from there. Myau was staggeringly old and in ways was far more perceptive than Rune could ever be in his lifetime, but that didn't make him nothing either. He had five generations of information stored in his memory and that made him pretty perceptive, too. "I can't be completely blind if I have this feeling that I have. Let me look into this. Give me perfect silence, please."

The old man of the Myst valley gave a firm glance at the cats huddled in the corner and the kitten in Rune's lap, a look that clearly said that if they interrupted the Lutz's meditation they would have to answer directly to him. The musk cats knew better, anyway. Even the kitten buried itself deeper into Rune's lap and mewed no more. Myau didn't know how long it would take for Rune to see the truth, but once he did he was certain that they would all know straight away.

Rune closed his eyes and let out a breath, relaxing. Meditation was both a very simple and complex procedure, something that varies from person to person. Many neophyte espers first learnt when they began their training was not to focus hard but to remain passive, not to seek but to be the one that is sought. Rune was a thoroughly impatient man, but for this he had to take his time. It was good for the mind, anyway. He slowed down his breathing as far and as deep as it could go without him having to audibly gasp for breath. Slow and silent, patient and relaxed. The thoughts of Myau and the other musk cats gradually left his mind.

When the outside world became dim he knew then it was time to begin. Rune began his trance in his own unique way, visualizing himself in a world of pitch blackness and night, sitting down much in the same way that he was doing now. He could see himself so vividly, so clearly, as if he were a casual observer looking upon himself. Then, slowly and smoothly, he began to erase himself from his mind. He needed to lose his sense of self, his physical body for the time being, so that he could see beyond the world that was. Bodies were a hindrance, please leave them at the door, the clerk will take them off your hands, thank you very much.

He smiled a little than inwardly scolded himself for it. He'd lose his relaxation if he started thinking about jokes now. Back to the erasure. Rune watched himself disappear bit by bit and allowed himself to be hypnotized by it, by the slowness and the detachment of the feeling. His feet went first, then his legs and hips, fading out as the darkness ate his flesh and blood alive. His middle, his shoulders and arms, then finally his head. Rune Walsh was gone, and that was good, because the _something_ that was affiliated with Rune still remained. It was part of Rune yet not Rune at the same time. He had effectively escaped from his own identity.

Experimentally he tested to see if he could feel his arms and legs. He tried to scratch his nose. He sent the same impulses through his mind as he usually did but received nothing, no effect from the cause. He couldn't feel his legs, either. It wasn't quite a numbness that he was experiencing, there was just nothing there to experience. All was blackness now, beyond his own mind.

He moved forward and ascended, away from the dark niche that he was inhabiting. There was no way to judge speed or distance when there was nothing around or within him, but soon that would change. He was a mote on the bottom of the sea bed, an air bubble racing upwards to break against the surface. How long could he exist like this? Forever, if necessary. Time was strange there, warped, or not existing at all. The only thing that was certain was the rushing light above him, a sparkle that grew and grew as he traveled through the astral plane. It was light, yes, but not in the physical sense of the word. It was the light of other consciousness, of other lives unique to his.

Suddenly it was upon him and he was there. It had the same frightening, shocking effect on him as if he had hit a brick wall racing along at a hundred miles an hour. The only difference between that and what he felt was that he had somehow survived the impact and was beyond it, on the other side of that great and shining light.

There it was. Algo's sea of souls. It was everybody who had a consciousness and a mind, grouped together to become a vast body of moving water. His friends were in there somewhere, everyone that he knew. The shock that he had felt was his own tiny drop of life separating itself from the living sea and rising above it, so that he could look down below and observe everything that he needed to see.

He saw.

He paused.

And then he understood.

From where he had been sitting in Myau's chamber Rune flinched as if struck from a physical blow and then immediately bolted to his feet. The shock of leaving his meditation in so sharp a way was the same as shaking awake a sleepwalker. His mind had trouble coping with so sudden a reentry that his body tried to compensate for that and got all tangled up in his neurological impulses. More simply put, Rune stood up as fast as he could, groaned, lost his balance and then fell over sideways. The musk kitten that had been curled up in his lap squeaked as it unexpectedly tumbled into the air. Fortunately it landed on its feet and scuttled away, agitated.

Rune's nose started to bleed. It was what sometimes happened when he was startled straight out of his trances. He took a moment for his mind to become properly acquainted with his body and identity again, then he picked himself up carefully from the floor. He wiped a few drops of blood from his nose and upper lip. Why did he have to be so stupid and react like that? He should have kept his calm, and Myau must have known that it was going to happen. Maybe that was why the old musk cat had partially left his altar and was looking over his friend with concern.

"From your reaction I trust you saw it." Said Myau gravely as he helped the shocked esper to maintain his balance by grabbing a fold of the esper's pale cloak and holding him in place. Rune sagged against Myau's orange shoulder but then found his strength again and stood under his own power. The cat had been worried about his friend because in the very deepest part of Rune's meditation the Lutz had stopped breathing. That was meant to happen, of course, but there was still always the slight chance that he might not start up again.

"I saw it." Rune rasped, his throat feeling amazingly dry. "For a second I didn't see anything at all and I thought all was well. Everything looked calm and tranquil, but it was like looking at an optical illusion from the corner of the eye. At first you see nothing, but then something in your vision shifts and then you can see it all. Myau, holy hell, what could it all mean?" He asked, dazed and worried. The feeling he had had in his head had not just been a mere feeling, it had been an alarm bell. A siren.

Myau let go of Rune's cloak and padded forward a little, his white wings rustling as he stared absently at the entrance of the chamber. The way his long ears quivered seemed to suggest that he was thinking very deeply. This wasn't his area of expertise, but he felt very involved all the same. "I couldn't tell you." He admitted at last, sounding lost. "I can't see things as clearly as you can, Rune. The only reason I can see anything at all is because of my age. Probably many other ancient souls in Algo have woken up to feelings just like ours. They may not understand what it means, but that is not my point. I'm too old to do anything about it. I've felt that so greatly today, more than any other day in my life."

The reverent Fifth felt that he could empathize with his friend. Still, he was unable to come up with any words that would console him. Sometimes silences worked best. Rune knelt and picked up his fallen stave. He experienced a small rush of vertigo but managed to overcome it easily. His head ached slightly. "How long was I out for?" He questioned, trying to change the subject. This was a topic that could not be ignored, but he wanted to know anyway.

"Two hours."

Rune nodded appreciatively. "That sounds about right." He muttered quietly. In truth it had only felt like five or ten minutes to him, but in the outside world time would have passed a lot faster. Some espers would spend days in meditation or even longer, and come back to weak dehydrated bodies starved of food and water. He had even heard of some cases where an esper's body would die of neglect during a very long running meditation, so that when the esper returned to the physical plane there would be no temple of flesh left to house him. Not even Rune knew where their spirits went after that.

Turning around again to face him, Myau asked the most important question of the day. "What are you going to do?" He asked, making the esper stare down at the ground in thought. "What _can_ you do, after everything has been looked into and debated? It may look very strange, but is this really a problem at all? Will people be hurt from it? Will _Algo_ be hurt from it?"

His answer to all of Myau's questions were the same. Rune looked uncertain. "I don't know." He replied. "All I know is that there is no disruption in Algo's life stream. That's fine, there's nothing wrong with that, but the _size_ of Algo's life stream has ballooned way out of proportion. In only one night! How the hell is that possible? There must be about…" he paused, calculating, "fifty thousand new souls in this star system at the very most, thirty thousand at the very least. There's no way Motavia or Dezoris could cope with that kind of population boom."

"So the questions aren't 'what is going on?', or 'what has happened?', because we already know that now. The questions are where did these new souls come from, what they are doing here, and what can be done about it." Myau concluded. "You need more information."

He was already thinking of a way to get at it. He may have been the most important protector of the two remaining worlds, but that didn't make him the only one. There were six others scattered between Motavia and Dezoris, and two in space. It was these latter two that Rune thought of most of all. It was their duty to monitor this sort of thing as well, not Rune alone. With their advanced technology maybe they had uncovered some information that his abilities had missed and vice versa. It was a long shot, but it was still worth a try. He didn't have any other ideas at the moment.

"I'm leaving." Rune announced loudly to Myau, trying to hold onto his sudden resolution. "I'm going to head down to Tyler, maybe there'll be something for me there. Staying in this little valley any longer won't accomplish anything." There was no time to go back to his hermitage and pack, he needed to leave straight away. Already a few hours of the morning had been wasted in his meditation. The sooner that he uncovered this mystery the better. He strode forward, passing Myau and making his intentions perfectly clear.

The giant musk cat watched him go. "I wish I could do more for you." He said to Rune's back. As one of the esper's oldest acquaintances Myau felt like he wasn't living up to their friendship's expectations.

Rune stopped in his tracks for a moment and then smiled. What Myau had said amused him. "Please," he said in almost a laugh, "you've already done more than enough for me. Thanks for letting me stay here for so long, and thanks for helping to take the blindfold away from my eyes. See you later, old friend."

He left Myau's chamber on those words. Although the winged musk cat _did_ eventually see the blue-haired magician again, that was the last time that he saw Rune Walsh as a whole individual, both physically and spiritually. A lot can happen in a short amount of time.

Rune was about to find that out for himself, soon.


	3. To Zelan, First Piece of the Puzzle

He was able to cut down on a lot of the walking by casting a ryuka spell as soon as he emerged from the valley, bypassing the rocky mountains and the town of Zosa by spiriting himself straight to Tyler. There seemed to be a tight sense of urgency within him now, bunched together inside his chest and growing tighter as every minute passed him by. So many new people, a great rising in the pool of souls borne within the Algo solar system. Their star system was so incredibly fragile already, there simply was no way that Algo would be able to cope with such a rise in population. It would cause Motavia and Dezoris, already half barren in themselves, to fall apart.

The esper materialized on the outskirts of the Palman colony in a brief shimmer of motion, drawing back his cloak as he came into being. His head swam for a moment as his mind raced to catch up with his body and then his vision cleared, allowing him to stride off towards the direction of the spaceport. The skies were completely cloudy now and there was a definite deep chill in the air, but all in all it was rather a lovely day for Dezoris. Rune could concentrate on his thoughts without worrying about where he was going, he could already see the thin grey line on the horizon that signified the roof of his destination.

How could so many souls be called into existence so suddenly? He knew that they had not been present in Algo yesterday, or the day before that. If that had been so Rune would have been called out here much earlier. Even more puzzling than that, neither Motavia nor Dezoris cried out in the support of extra lives, straining under a new and great burden. The two planets were silent. The solution must lie in deep space, and if not a solution, then at least a clue to this mystery. Rune didn't really have anywhere left to turn to, so despite the esper's aversion to asking people for help he decided he would forget about it, just this one time.

The sight that Rune saw moments later, however, was something that he wasn't likely to forget.

There was something vaguely surreal about watching a bishop in nearly full regalia throwing a temper tantrum in a snowfield. Rune slowed his step until he was just standing there, staring, unsure whether to laugh or to cringe. He did the former shortly, then the latter, and then started down the gentle slope that he was standing on to see what on Dezoris was wrong with his old friend. He left slight trails in the snow as he half-walked, half-slid down the hill.

Rune had not expected to see Raja out alone in the fields of Tyler, of all places. Last he had heard the old dezorian had been promoted to the rank of bishop and led off to the heartland of the planet to help rebuild and sanctify the destroyed Gumbious temple. Raja had complained about that busy, bustling place and having to return to it again, but he also declared that if the world needed fixing he was the most qualified old coot around to do the job. Not very holy words, but true words nonetheless.

The words that Raja was muttering in the here and now weren't very holy either. The dezorian was rolling balls of snow scooped from the ground with his long-fingered hands and flinging them at the closed doors of the spaceport, cursing mildly as he did so. He nearly jumped out of his skin when Rune crept up behind him and planted a gloved hand on his shoulder, dropping the perfectly formed snowball that had been locked and loaded at his feet. He made sort of an; "Aiy!" sound, if it was a dezorian word Rune didn't know of it, and then the esper recalled something about the priest that was vitally important. He was almost as quick with a stave as Rune was.

He remembered just in time and swiftly ducked, half a second away from being smacked over the head by a silver staff. Before Raja could figure out who it was he was trying to hit his arms swung up for a second strike again, but Rune shot out a hand and stopped Raja's wrist firmly in its tracks. The bishop finally saw the esper and stared at him in a bewildered and confused way, the unmistakable look of utter senility.

Rune knew better, though. Raja's expression seemed to clear, it turned unmistakably sunny and he dropped his staff on the ground, embracing Rune in a friendly hug as he shouted "Esper!" into Rune's neck. Well, it seemed like Raja had not forgotten him. That was good. But the hugging… _that_ was a little much for Rune's personal space.

"What are you doing here?" Rune asked as he frowned and pried the old man away from him. The years had not seemed to have changed Raja much. He was sporting a few more wrinkles than before but that was about it. They were extra laugh lines and deepening crows feet at the corners of Raja's slitted eyes. Rune knelt and picked up the silver staff that the bishop had dropped when Rune tried to disarm him. He handed the weapon back to his grinning friend. "You planning on chartering a spaceship somewhere?" He added jokingly, but unwittingly he had hit the nail squarely on the head. That was exactly what Raja had been trying to do, in his own strange way.

Raja accepted his stave gratefully and leant on it a little, regarding his friend cheerfully yet evenly. Rune was still Rune. Well, maybe his hair was a bit longer and his face seemed grimmer, but Raja didn't care about that. Why had Rune asked him what he was doing here? Didn't the esper know already? Why else would the magician have traveled all the way out here just to meet with him? "Weren't you expecting me? I came because I was called here. Didn't you hear the call as well?" The dezorian retorted.

This surprised Rune, but it wasn't really as mystifying as it seemed. Espers were not the only ones with a spiritual side. Raja had been able to sense the negative energy of the Garuberk Tower long ago when he and the Chaz Ashley company had journeyed across the world and saved the Algo solar system. It made sense that a dezorian bishop would be able to see the vast increase in souls just as Rune did. He just hadn't really expected Raja to take an active role in something so deeply serious once more. Rune nodded his head solemnly to his friend. "Something strange has happened up in space. I'm sure of it." He said.

"Yeah, that's why I'm here." Raja agreed as he strolled back to the locked entrance of the spaceport. He rapped his knuckles against the thick metal lightly, hardly making a noise. "Algo sings, you know, Rune? We priests hear its song as we slumber, like intermissions in our dreams. Most of the time it's something that we can easily ignore, so we can focus on our dreams, but last night as I slept the volume exploded as another choir stepped into the tune. Their song is different to ours but they speak the language of Algo. Isn't that weird?"

The way that Raja described it seemed vastly different to the way that Rune had experienced it, but he still found the different insight quite valuable. At least he and Myau were not the only ones sensing this. A different song, but the same voice? What on Dezoris could _that_ mean? Rune didn't know. "That is pretty weird. Were you trying to get in to go to Zelan? You need an access code to open the doors. Don't you remember it?"

The bishop suddenly looked rather sheepish. "I had written it down somewhere but I guess I must have lost it. A lot of my stuff got misplaced when I moved back to Jut. Why does it have to be something as hard to remember as a long number anyway? What's wrong with a word like 'open sesame?'" He complained, gesticulating with his hands. He wasn't very adamant to tell Rune about how bad his memory had become lately, from forgetting the number to forgetting _where_ he had written the number as well.

"Because this thing only has a number pad attached to it." Rune answered, activating the device with a touch of his fingertips. "I remember the password. I'll let you in." Raja harrumphed and folded his arms like a difficult child, hugging his silver stave. Rune's spirits rose a little. He liked being in charge, especially if he was leading somebody as powerful and as influential as a dezorian bishop. Not that he could ever picture Raja having influence over anything, save for the flow of stupid jokes coming in and out of Jut. The magician entered in the code. "One oh six five four six." He muttered under his breath as he pressed the buttons.

The metal doors to the spaceport slid open with a sighing concealed hiss. Lights were on inside. It was good to know that there hadn't been a power outage or something. Rune and Raja wouldn't have known what to do if there were. The two friends hurried on inside, eager to get out of the snow. It wasn't much warmer inside of the spaceport but at least it was drier. Raja still seemed to be fascinated by the flashing lights. For somebody whose culture was so backward and rigid the dezorian loved the technological wonders of the distant age. Raja would have taken a spaceship and gone sightseeing all over the cosmos if he could.

Rune searched for one of the computer units that would have an up-link into Zelan. The esper was pretty much in the dark as to how he would use it; that certainly was not his area of expertise. He turned a monitor on and began to fiddle with the keys and dials, trying to make it do what he wanted. Why did these damn things have to be so complicated? His distant memories from two millennia ago regarding computers were the only guidelines that he had. "So what do you think all this means?" He haphazardly asked the bishop standing behind him as he worked.

"I think I don't want to guess until I see it with my own eyes. That way I'll be able to accept everything when we find out about it." Wow. That actually sounded rather wise. Perhaps Raja had really grown a serious side in Jut. Rune smiled in relief when he thought he had found the right program that he needed. Raja continued, slyly. "Maybe it's an alien race from far away wanting to chuck a party? I wouldn't mind that. Hey, maybe Zelan is party central right now!" The dezorian laughed.

That sounded unlikely. Rune groaned at Raja's blithering optimism. Some things just never changed. It looked like Rune was going to have to drag the bishop along with him as well. It could be like the old times all over again. No, not really. It just wouldn't be the same without Chaz and Rika. The magician's train of thought halted when the up-link screen popped onto the desktop. That had been fast. He had expected that it would take much longer than that. "Uh, hello?" He greeted the screen hesitantly, waiting for something to happen.

He heard a fumbling sound, but nobody chose to appear upon the screen. Rune could see a bit of Zelan, dim lights flashing in the background, but that was it. The satellite appeared to be deserted from his vantage point. Rune's shoulders slumped a little. Was nobody at home? As soon as he thought this Wren's voice filtered through the speakers. He sounded distant, and distracted. "Hello Rune, I will be with you in a minute. Please hold."

The up-link died. Rune and Raja just stood there staring at the empty screen. "Did he just… put us on hold?" Rune said out loud to nobody in particular. That was cold. Either Wren had forgotten how to be civil to people or something was going on up there that was terribly urgent. They hadn't seen their friends in over three years and Rune had at least expected a decent greeting. Beside him Raja just grinned and repeated what he had said about party central. He declared that Wren brushing their communication off so quickly strengthened his silly theory.

It did not take a minute for Wren to get back to them. It took twelve minutes. The two holy men of Dezoris were growing understandably impatient, not just from the waiting but also from not quite knowing what was going on. Rune and Raja were not used to being kept in the dark. The latter seemed to have an irritating habit of tapping his stave against the echoing floor while he waited. After ten minutes of this Rune touched his right temple lightly, as if he were developing a headache. How annoying.

Before Rune had an opportunity to snap at his old companion the up-link reconnected itself and Wren appeared on the screen. The android was as they remembered him to be, as tall and as broad as a giant, but as dull as a stone. It didn't seem like he showed much pleasure in seeing Rune and Raja either. "I apologise for the wait," he droned, "but I was in the middle of something. Hello Rune, Raja. I have been expecting your transmission all morning."

Raja jumped at what Wren had said. He wasn't quite sure how the metal contraption was sending their message to Zelan so he shouted in the machine's general direction. "What? So does this mean you woke up with that strange feeling as well? It's not just Rune and I? Does that mean everybody else is getting this feeling too? Hey, what do you know about this?" He demanded.

Wren did not seem to be disturbed by the five different questions that he could not answer. He did not even look confused. "Insufficient data. I do not know what you are talking about. I do not understand this 'feeling' that you are referencing, but I have received an earlier transmission from Rika that bore similar connotations. That is why I was expecting a call from Dezoris very soon." The android paused, looking off-screen for several moments. He then continued with a greater sense of purpose. "Zelan is experiencing a problem. I would appreciate it if you would come here and analyze it. This is a subject leaning out of my jurisdiction."

The mention of Rika was intriguing. It gave substance to Raja's idea that all the Protectors of Algo had felt the disturbance. Everybody except for the androids, it seemed. It felt like they were all still loosely connected, even after three years, by strong invisible strands that were like a spider's web. It was only the morning and Rune had already been reintroduced to Raja and Wren, and now the idea of Rika was coming back into the picture. The numan girl. Their hope for the future. "Is Chaz still with Rika?" Rune asked their link to Zelan and all the other planets. He was going off topic but he was honestly interested by this.

"As far as I know they have been engaged for a year. This I have learned from Demi." Wren replied softly, tacking his servant's name on the end as if he had no interest in keeping track of this information himself. He had more important things to concern himself with, like Zelan's rather dire problem. "Can we please get back to the situation at hand? I hope I am not being too forward in requesting your presence here, Reverent Fifth."

"No, that's why Raja and I came to this spaceport in the first place. We can't ignore a call like this. I don't think any Protector can." Rune placed his hand to his chin in thought. Since when did Wren have any respect for the office of the Lutz outside of common cultural and religious courtesy? He would only request the presence of the Lutz if he thought that Rune might be able to help him in a way that no other esper could. The magician had a feeling that this had more to do with his accumulated memories than his special skills. "Can you tell us what this is all about right now?" He pried.

Wren considered Rune's proposal carefully, then he declined it. "Negative. It would be best for you to come here and see the disturbance for yourself. You may understand it better than I can. I will have a status report ready for you by the time that you reach Zelan."

This was becoming curiouser and curiouser. Rune started to wonder vaguely if he was just having a very strange or confusing dream. Beside him Raja looked totally lost, but he was trying not to show that he was lost. "How are we going to get to your station?" Rune questioned Wren seriously. "This spaceport is empty."

The android was beginning to look distracted again. No, not distracted. Impatient, like he had a dozen different jobs that were piling up as he talked casually with his two distant friends. "I will have Demi pick you up with one of Zelan's spare pods. She is currently en-route to rendezvous with Chaz, Rika and Hahn, so her arrival on Dezoris may take some time. I would gladly come and get you myself but for now I am unable to leave my post. I apologize."

Sounded like Zelan's resources were wearing rather thin. Of course, it only had two members staffing the facility that had to monitor the entire Algo system. Wren had managed it solo in pre-Dark Force times. Maybe he was beginning to rely on Demi too much for assistance. Well, he and Raja could wait. There wasn't anything else they could do. "We're not going anywhere. Tell Demi to get her butt in gear next time you talk to her." Rune smirked. "See you in a little while. Over and out." He closed the up-link and the screen grew dark. They had contacted Zelan and they still knew next to nothing about what was going on. Great.

Raja, who had been silent since his last outburst suddenly spun into cackling laughter. Rune looked at the dezorian like he had flipped his lid. "Ha! I never thought I'd get to see space again! The gods can't keep _me_ out of retirement for very long!" Raja slapped his thigh in a way that reminded Rune of his grandfather, who used to do that a long time ago. It calmed the bishop down some. "Mr. Droid seemed like the epitome of warmth today, didn't he?" He finished, sarcastically.

It was hard to be warm when one seemed so… nervous. That was the closest word Rune could pin to Wren right now. It made Rune feel better to know that he was not the only nervous one. Even Raja was nervous too, though he managed to cover it up with laughter. The esper thought that even though Wren had denied such a 'feeling' that the two religious men felt, the android must sense it anyway to come off as nervous as he was. There wasn't really much of a difference between Rune, Raja and Wren anyway. They were all shepherds, guardians of their particular flock.

"Looks like we wait." Rune sighed. Raja groaned.

†††

Wren had not been lying when he had said that it would take some time. Close to five hours passed on Dezoris before the tiny indistinct grey shape of the spaceship appeared in the cloudy sky, ripping through it like a bullet that was slowing down. Rune was standing in the middle of the snowfield watching its descent with a hand over his brow to block out the very weak glare. It was a welcoming symbol, a sight that Rune had not seen in over three years and hadn't realised that he had missed it until now. During the Great War their ship had been the closest thing to home. He smiled sentimentally at it, wondering if anything would ever serve them in that manner all over again.

In the five hours until the ship had appeared Raja had wanted to take a break and head back to Ryuon for a drink and a warm hearth, but Rune had talked him into sticking around and waiting for the ship in person. It would be very impolite to the androids if they turned up and he and Raja weren't there. Raja kind of wished that he had kept his own counsel. After five hours of waiting in the wilderness and inside the cold metal spaceport everything beyond his knees and elbows had gone completely numb. He could have run down to Ryuon, had a few, and then come back with plenty of time to spare.

Filling up several hours of waiting with worthwhile things to do is exceedingly hard. Rune coped pretty well by diving into his usual training and meditation schedule despite the time of day, not even a mystery of galactic proportions could sway him from his discipline. That made him feel pretty good about himself, it kept him focussed and directed towards his goals. If meditating in the middle of an icy cold snowfield and feeling one's butt slowly growing numb wasn't an enlightening trial, then nothing was.

Raja frequently interrupted and bothered him with his own fun and games. For Raja he was only as young as he felt. The dezorian priest killed time by slowly building an array of various snowmen, similar to one another and yet somehow unique. He named them all, introduced them to one another, then used his priestly powers to wed most of them together, regardless of age, gender or shape of each snowman. When he tired of that he tried to make snow angels which turned out pretty well, yet that was also only a temporary thing and eventually he sat down beside Rune, sharing in his silence. To the esper it had not been a moment too soon, for if Raja had started up on the snowballs again he would have had a war on his hands.

The esper and the Dezorian priest stood up when they saw the spaceship in the sky. Raja's slitted eyes squinted even further as he mentally traced its shape. "It's about bloody time!" He crowed cheerily as he patted the fallen snow off his body, looking at Rune expectantly. "I guess she had to take a stop to refuel the 'ol space sled, that or we interrupted them while they were wallpaperin' their station. Maybe they want to show us their interior decorating? Hey, is your butt as numb as mine is? Wowee!"

"You never change, do you old man? Come on and let's see what this problem is. Then we can all sleep easier tonight." Provided it was something they could help with, of course. Raja grinned and nodded, walking back to his snowman community and taking back his staff that he had given to one of his creations. He bid them all farewell, individually, by name. When he was finally prepared to leave he followed a very impatient Rune to the spaceport, the blue-haired magician unlocking the doors in the same manner as before. The spaceport was lit up and active, awaiting its first extraterrestrial visitors in over three years.

The spaceship docked smoothly and skillfully on Dezoris without any problems, the two spiritual leaders of the ice planet finding themselves waiting outside the ship's cooling outer hull a safe distance away, steam rising from the metal surface after a burning entry into the planet's atmosphere.

Somehow, it made all the boring tedious waiting worthwhile as Rune and Raja entered the spaceport from one end, and Demi from the other. The small service android looked at the two figures that seemed monstrously tall to her, curiously, but then she cried out in delight and ran towards them like a scene out of a cheesy movie. Rune held out his arms to her but was also slightly afraid that Demi would be too strong for him and knock him over. She was short, but she was powerful too.

"Rune! Mr. Raja!" She cried and struck the magician with more of a restrained force than he had originally anticipated. Demi grabbed him around his middle and gave him a great big hug. This was the happy greeting that they had neglected to receive from Wren. Rune patted Demi on the head fondly and she let go of him, offering her hand to Raja for a handshake. She was still beaming as the bishop shook hands with her awkwardly. "It's been too long. I've missed all of you." She announced.

Demi seemed to have become even more vivacious since last they had met her. It may have been because of her promotion to a Zelan service android, but more than likely it could have been because she had to make enough commotion for two people now. Zelan must be quite a boring place. "So what's the problem?" Rune asked sneakily, hoping that if he couldn't get the information out of Wren he might be able to squeeze the secret out of Demi. They had a great many pieces of the puzzle in their hands, they just needed to see the picture on the box before they could start assembling them together.

The green-haired girl smiled and shook her head. "Master told me not to tell you until we get back to Zelan. He also told me to 'get my butt in gear' when I dropped Chaz, Rika and Hahn off there but I didn't really understand what he meant by that." Raja started to laugh again and even Rune managed a little snicker. Demi seemed a bit perplexed. "In any case, the sooner we can get to Zelan the sooner we can figure out this problem. I know I should be worried over all of this but honestly I find it rather exciting. Please come with me."

That was indeed true, so they allowed Demi to herd them into the space pod, which was certainly no Landale but it looked skyworthy. It didn't seem to have a name, but Demi called it 'Buggy', which did match its unique shape. Rune had not left Dezoris in over three years. It felt weird to be saying goodbye to the old iceball all over again. He wondered how long it would be before he got to go home again, but reminded himself that it was not the way that an adventurer should think.

It was a bit of a tight fit inside. It must have felt right at home to Demi, who eagerly hopped into the small pilot's seat and plugged herself into the ship's computer. Rune and Raja felt a little claustrophobic though, and only really felt comfortable when they sat down and buckled up. Demi insisted that she would not leave until everybody had their seatbelts on. Rune was tempted to say something about women drivers but decided not to, being cooped up with said woman driver and somebody who probably wouldn't even get the joke.

The ship sped down the runway smoothly and gave only a little lurch when it got up into the air. For something as ugly as it outwardly appeared it seemed to be a good spaceship. Raja had his face smooshed up against the window on his side, watching the land becoming covered by the clouds, and then seeing the clouds themselves dropping away from their view. In a couple of minutes the bishop would be able to see the curvature of Dezoris as they entered the mesosphere. It was amusing and a little scary that a huge place like Dezoris could become so tiny, just a blue ball floating in space.

Rune was not really interested in the scenery right now. He was watching Demi who was smiling so happily from meeting her friends again. Chaz and company must have put her in a really good mood. Yet Rune felt in the back of his head and the telemental part of his mind a sort of foreboding about the android girl, that was why he couldn't take his eyes off her. Even the Lutz could not predict the future, but they could have slight inklings all the same. Rune just couldn't stand up to Demi and pronounce 'You are in grave peril…' in a stupid fortune teller voice, but he wanted to do _something_ to help.

"Hey Demi, what does that red mark on your forehead mean?" Rune asked, and then wanted to slap a black-gloved hand over his face. Why the hell had he asked something like that? That had been the very _last_ thing on his mind!

The girl turned to him, looked surprised but then smiled again. This minute distraction from the ship's control panel would not put them in any danger. If danger occurred Demi would be notified of it prematurely. It was safe to talk, and nobody had ever asked her about that before. "Well, I was just created with it on my face. There used to be an honored family living on Palma who wore marks like these. I guess I was just modeled after one of them. I don't know why, I never really bothered to ask." Demi touched the mark with two of her fingertips. "Why do you want to know?"

"No reason really, just curious." Rune replied, then dropped the subject. He needed to take these strange matters one step at a time. Two hours passed. Raja fell asleep with his face against the window. He didn't snore, which was certainly a good thing. Outside the ship space was lovely and beautiful as usual, a hundred million different stars a backdrop to their celestial journey.

Rune had his eyes closed and was zoning out a bit, resting his chin against his curled hand when Demi suddenly addressed him again. Perhaps she had spoken too loudly, for the Lutz flinched in reaction to her voice. He looked at her questioningly, trying to cover up his previous action. "Rune, we are almost there. We will be docking in ten minutes time. My Master told me not to mention anything until we got to Zelan, but he didn't say anything about me _showing_ it to you instead. Look out your window and tell me what you see."

She was going to get in trouble for doing this but Rune was dying to know and didn't care. He glanced out his window eagerly. It was most interesting to watch Rune's face at that moment. At first it looked like he didn't see anything at all, just Zelan orbiting their distant star. Then he saw the forest amidst the trees. He saw the _second_ satellite. Surprised wasn't a strong enough word to describe how Rune looked. It was utter bewilderment. Incredulity, then a bit of fear. Rune had not just seen one ghost, he had seen _fifty thousand_ of them.

"That's-" he stuttered and jerked back from the window, savagely elbowing Raja in the side to wake him up. The bishop squawked, swatting at invisible enemies sleepily. Rune didn't seem to notice. "That's…" he continued, unable to get the rest of the sentence out.

For the first time that day Demi looked somber. "Master was sure that you would recognise it." She said.

"Th-that's a freaking Worldship!" Rune cried, and he was correct.


	4. Alisa III

Rune met the first of his Motavian friends shortly after Demi had docked 'Buggy' with Zelan and they had made landfall. It felt great to be able to stretch his legs again. He had nothing against Demi's ship but he didn't want to be getting back inside it anytime soon. Chaz was hanging out by himself in the landing bay, sort of pacing around impatiently. The others were currently at Zelan's main observation area but Chaz had wanted to wait around for Rune and Raja to get there. He didn't think he'd ever be able to see the two again, so he was pretty nervous. He and Rune had become friends during the Great War but the esper tended to pick on him. Would things still be the same?

The esper and the dezorian turned a corner in the passageway, led by a jabbering Demi who was trying to explain to them the modifications that had been made to Zelan in the new millennium. Chaz was alerted to the sound and immediately stopped his pacing, staring at them like an animal that had been caught in the headlights of the land rover. "Rune." He breathed in recognition.

Rune knew that he had not changed much in the past three years and neither had Raja, but they were both adults during the Great War while Chaz had only been a child. Great Light, the boy had grown! He was two or three growth spurts taller and had lost a fraction of his baby face, dressed in civilian clothing rather than his usual hunting gear. Chaz had not come in preparation for a fight. Even his voice had changed, by saying Rune's name once he could hear how deeper and more adult it had become. Rune gave Chaz a welcoming smile. "Hey shorty." He said.

Chaz smiled back widely and closed the distance between himself and the others, unexpectedly grabbing Rune in a wild hug. Everybody was going to be hugging him today he figured, it was becoming a trend. He must be so popular around here. Chaz laughed. "I _knew_ I'd get to see you again someday! Never meet each other again, yeah right! How are you, Rune? What have you been doing these couple of years?"

"Why, he teamed up with me and we took Dezoris by storm with our unstoppable comedy routine! The barmy bishop and the loony Lutz! We can't even get into Jut anymore without being swamped by fans!" Raja chortled, jerking a thumb at himself. Demi looked up at the old man earnestly, the only one naïve enough to believe his tale.

"Oof, I told you last time what I'd be doing. I've been in training. Let go of me brat, you're making it hard to breathe." Rune scolded, trying to palm the boy away from him. Chaz obeyed and backed away a couple of steps, grinning and rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment. The hunter had grown some but he still seemed to act like a kid. Rune straightened his robes out that Chaz had messed up. "Where are the others?" He asked, a little eager to meet Rika and Hahn but even more anxious to get down to the business of what he had seen. That was very important.

The hunter was about to speak but Demi beat him to it. "They should still be with Master Wren on the observation deck. I was ordered to take you up there too." The girl looked around a little bit, as if she expected that somebody was listening in on her. She added; "When you see the ship on the deck please act like it is the first time you have seen it, or else I might get into trouble for loopholing an order."

He doubted that Demi would actually get punished for something like that but he might as well do her a favor anyway. The foursome of people walked together again after so much time apart. Thoughts of the worldship that he had seen weighed heavily on Rune's mind. What was it doing there and what could they do with it? He shouldn't try and figure out answers to these questions until he was out on the deck with the rest of his friends. "How are Hahn and Rika?" He asked Chaz, the hunter keeping in step with him easily.

"I've started to wonder lately if there really is such a thing as a perfect happy ending. If it does exist then we are living it, my friend. Hahn is doing great, he climbed up the educational ladder and now he has his own pre-collapse history class. He's been keeping in touch with Zelan for all of us, but I think his real reason for doing that is to wheedle information for his classes from Demi and Wren." Demi smiled and nodded to Chaz's words. "As for Rika… she's as radiant as ever. I thought she might have trouble adapting to normal life but she just fit right in. She's retired from fighting now Rune, she says she's had more than enough of it to last a lifetime."

Fair enough for her. Rune would have like to have put away his stave for good too, if he had been given the chance. Lutzes never got that chance. They had always been trained for combat, from the cradle to the grave. Rune could see the pure sense of admiration and love on Chaz's face when he spoke of the numan girl. There was something there, a connection that only an idiot could not see. He was glad that Rika had chosen to stay on Motavia instead of the other alternative. Chaz was happier for it too. "So when's the wedding?" He asked nonchalantly, watching Demi flinch, her gossip getting out of hand. That was the way gossip spread though, from person to person.

"Oh, so you know about that, huh?" Chaz replied casually, but the question that was lingering on the tip of his tongue was more along the lines of; 'how do _you_ know about that?'. Demi wasn't going to say anything, so let the blond-haired man think that Rune was telepathic. It would make things much more fun. Chaz looked a little bashful, tugging at his shirt collar. "It's in five months time, in Aiedo. You can come if you want, provided you're not busy."

"Maybe I will." Rune answered promptly, then stopped in his tracks when their guide ceased moving. Raja nearly bumped into him from behind. They were still in a sort of corridor-like area, but this part of Zelan looked slightly older and shabbier compared to the areas that they were familiar with. There were many closed doors along the corridor and each one was numbered. Demi was standing outside room thirty nine and was staring at it in a sad, meaningful way, like a little girl locked out of a candy store. Rune tapped her gently on the shoulder. "Is this it?" He questioned, voicing the words for all of them.

Demi looked at him and shook her head, turning on her heel and leading them on along the corridor. No explanation was given for her unaccountable halt. Rune kind of got the feeling that whenever Demi walked through here she stopped at that door all the time, only this time she had forgotten that she had visitors with her. It was a long trek to the observation deck. Zelan surely was a gigantic place. Twenty minutes later they reached the big doors that led to the open space on top of the station. It was sealed with a special gravitational field that prevented people from simply floating off into space or suffocating.

The android girl pulled back a pressure release lever for the hydraulics of the door and it slid open soundlessly, a slight pressure change in the air around them causing their ears to ache. Chaz stepped inside first, already familiar with the area around him. Rune and Raja followed with Demi bringing up the rear. It was quite a spectacular view. All around them were stars, the lazy swirl of galaxies, and in front of them were the rest of their friends.

Wren looked just as he was and always would be, but Rika beside him was a sight to behold. Rune had never imagined Rika in a dress before. The look really seemed to suit her and pink was always her colour. Hahn had grown his hair out and was wearing civilian clothing too. This did not look like a reunion of seasoned fighters at all, but Rika and Hahn looked great, happy and healthy. It almost made Rune wonder if he had _really_ accomplished anything during his brief three years of training. There was so much change around him that it was hard to keep track of it all.

"Ah, they are here." Wren said calmly as Rika ran from her place beside him and touched on Chaz for a moment, giving him a little squeeze before moving on to the others. Rune had expected to receive Rika's attention first but she jumped to Raja instead, embracing him like a long lost grandfather. The bishop just ate up the attention, which made Demi and Hahn laugh. Wren folded his arms and regarded Rune carefully. "Thank you for coming, Reverent Fifth. Shall we begin?"

"First things first!" Rika giggled, hugging her most favorite dezorian in the world. "I haven't given everybody a hug yet." The girl disengaged from Raja and turned to Rune. She knew that he didn't like overly physical contact much. Much to her surprise, however, Rune held his arms out to her. The unspoken offer was more than obvious.

"Come on, everybody seems to be doing it today. I think I can stand one more." He reassured her, smirking in his own trademark way. Rika beamed and slipped into his arms, planting a fond kiss on his cheek. That pretty much made the attention worth it, then and there. Rune could almost forget about the worldship and his reason for coming here, it just felt good being with his friends again. He had missed that feeling and he hadn't even realised it.

"The worldship." Hahn said aloud, gesturing towards the astoundingly large spaceship caught in orbit around Algo's star, just as Zelan was. Its sheer size was not something that could easily be described or ignored. Its girth was equal to that of a small continent, a small moon. The seven people on the observation deck could see it clearly in all its mystery. Rune was still holding onto Rika, but the esper let go of her modestly. The ship bore many domes and only its underside looked like the workings of a proper spaceship, but its thrusters seemed to be dead or nonfunctional. Around the ship two tiny satellites slowly rotated, one green, the other blue. It looked to be an incredibly sophisticated facility.

Raja broke the awkward silence that Hahn had created by making an impressed whistling noise. Rika moved toward Chaz and took his hand, watching the ship alongside him. The wreckage of a worldship had crashed on Motavia once, shattering the domes and punching a large crater into the ground. That broken ship had only been a flea in comparison to this great beast. It was a wonder to see that one of them was spaceworthy after so much time. "Are there living people aboard? You said you didn't know if the life support was still functioning." Rika said, addressing her question to Wren.

Oh, there were still people alive on that ship, Rune and Raja knew of that well. It was the presence of their souls that had called out to them rather than the appearance of the ship. Under those domes were lands not unlike the terrain of Motavia, Dezoris and Palma. Harsh and stifling, frigid and chilly, lush and verdant. One of the key worldships, information that one of the dead Lutzes in his mind knew well. "There's around forty to fifty thousand people staffing that ship. It has satellites, so that makes it a key worldship. Only five of those variety were made because of the massive strain on resources. Even Mother Brain had her limits."

The sureness in Rune's voice immediately made him the center of attention. The magician was not very impressed, but he could see now why Wren had invited him here. The android was too young to have a detailed knowledge of the collapse exodus. Wren had been made a couple of years later. How sneaky of him. Well, he could have all the information that he wanted now.

Chaz raised his hand nervously, meekly. "Um… I don't know about the rest of you, but I have no idea what is going on. What kind of ship is that? Could I get an explanation please?" Raja also grunted in agreement.

Hahn spread his arms in the beginning of a tale. Biology had been his major subject at the Academy but circumstance kept pulling him towards the branch of history. Wren, Rika and Rune continued to be silent, so this tale was his. "One thousand years ago Palma exploded, as you all know. The event was dubbed the 'Great Collapse'. When Palma was destroyed a multitude of ships carrying refugees and lost technology escaped, determined to seek a new home. Of the great many ships only five of them were properly equipped for long-term survival. When I say long-term survival I mean hundreds and hundreds of years. They were called 'Key Ships' and had satellites for external support."

"Those ships escaped the violent 'Collapse Wars' that ravaged Motavia and Dezoris for decades after the disaster," Wren continued, picking up from where Hahn had left off, "and it was believed a fraction of these key ships successfully escaped the Algo solar system. Many other ships were destroyed mysteriously, some hypothesized by a remnant subroutine left by Mother Brain in the ship's data banks. It is my belief they were rendered inoperable by a myriad of technical defects. Now it is one thousand and one years after Palma was destroyed and a key ship has returned. I ask why."

Rune couldn't answer Wren's question. He had no idea of the reason why. The ship had just appeared, popped up out of nowhere one day, as if it had sailed straight into a wormhole and by a vast improbability had ended up right near its point of origin again. The esper sighed and shrugged, defeated. "I don't know. I know the history better than anybody else here but I don't have an answer for you. We shouldn't be worrying about the 'hows' and 'whys', we should be thinking about what to do with it. Do we leave it as it is? Let it make landfall on one of the existing planets? Send it on its merry way to a more charitable star system?"

Chaz found that a little funny. He knew rather well what it was like to get booted out of places. "'Sorry guys, we can't spare the resources even if you _are_ family, move along please?' That's kind of cold, Rune, but I guess I can see where you're coming from."

"The collapse wars did not happen for no reason." Wren said gravely. "Populating Algo when the planet's resources cannot carry the strain would lead to famine and conflict. Granted, current civilization does not possess the means to fight as ferociously over land as they once did, but the results would be quite similar. This key worldship must not be permitted to make landfall on Motavia or Dezoris." Fortunately it didn't seem like the ship would be able to land anywhere even if it wanted to. Its propulsion was shot, only its life support system seemed to be functioning normally.

Wren seemed curiously knowledgeable about that long-distant war. Rune would have found that strange for a system control android but he also knew that Wren had spent the first years of his life in such a war-torn age. He had a good point though, the worldship couldn't stay here. "I have an idea." Said a little voice from behind all of them. It sounded hopeful and calm, but a bit shy.

Demi had not said anything for quite some time. She had listened instead, piecing together all the fragments of information without letting her own ideas get in the way. All eyes fell on her and she felt the pressure from them, the girl clasping her hands behind her back, like in a recital. "The only thing that we can do from here is observe the ship and make assumptions based on visual info. I propose that we investigate further, maybe try sending a signal to the ship or go down into it for a first-hand look."

What Demi was suggesting was no light matter. It could be severely dangerous if not handled properly. Dealing with the inhabitants of that ship would be like dealing with the members of an alien culture, separated by a one thousand year old generation gap. Yet Demi's idea did have some merit in it, they were accomplishing nothing by merely staring at it from afar. "Very well. I will organize a signal to be sent towards the occupants of that ship, asking for its name, origin and destination. I was going to do that anyway before I started to get emergency transmissions from both sides of the system." Wren said rudely, referencing his guests from Motavia and Dezoris.

"You make it sound like you're not happy to see us." Hahn observed jokingly, placing his hands on his hips. Wren didn't answer him but went to one of the major computers situated on the observation deck, starting his work without so much as a word. Rune thought that it was actually pretty unfriendly of him, but obeyed Demi quietly as the girl ushered everybody else out of the room, closing the doors on her master once she was done. She sighed, looking at five very expectant faces not quite willing to ask.

She answered the unspoken question anyway, apologetically. "I'm sorry. Master Wren has been in a bit of a foul mood ever since the worldship has turned up on our doorstep. I think it symbolizes to him events that were tied up long ago beginning to come loose again. I've had this strange feeling in my neural matrix all morning and I feel really excited all over everything. Instead, Master just seems to have developed a headache." She rubbed the side of her head slightly to emphasize this. Rune knew that this was typical of androidkind, or any system that held a hierarchy within it. The faults of the masters were always the responsibilities of the servants.

"That's okay Demi." Chaz smiled to the green-haired girl, having to lean down to talk to her properly. He surely had grown. "We can wait for a little while. Let's go and find a comfortable place to hang around."

"D'ya have any tea on this floating metal island?" Their resident bishop asked hopefully. Demi shook her head and Raja sagged a little. "Figured as much."

Rika patted the dezorian cheerfully on the shoulder. "Don't worry. Fortunately Chaz and I thought ahead. We packed a really big lunch because we had the feeling that we'd see some of our friends again. I left the basket in the main hall. Do you want to have a picnic?" It was all about strange feelings today. It made Rika wonder if they were connected to each other in a deeper sense than she had originally believed. Rika smiled prettily at another silly thought. "A picnic in space? How many people can say that they've had a picnic in _space_?"

Hahn started to chuckle. "I like the idea of that." He said.

†††

Wren fancied that maybe he did indeed have a headache. It was the only vaguely logical explanation he could come up with to explain the strange feeling that he had. He didn't like it, it was something annoying and obstructive that was not meant to be there at all. Wren did not believe in the sixth sense, and even if it _did_ exist then he was certain that he did not possess it. He was only worried about the worldship that had fallen into his responsibility, that was all.

…And maybe that was a bit of a lie, but that did not matter. Wren was hunched over the computer controls thinking, mostly on what to broadcast to the ship violating Zelan's airspace. He wasn't even sure if he would get a proper answer. After one thousand years the likelihood of a pilot still being at the helm was low. Maybe he _had_ been a little cold to his friends before, but that did not matter either. Wren knew that friends were hard to come by on such a dead system like Algo and they were all too easy to lose again.

_"If you're going to continue to bring me your boys' bodies at least be gentle with them, even if a few **are** enemy soldiers. This is a clinic we're in, not a mortuary."_

By the Creator, when was the last time he had been ordered around? By somebody with an honorary title, no less? His thoughts about the past, the worldship and the topic of friends had linked him to some old memories, ones that were better left buried. He couldn't muffle them, the floodgates had been opened and the memories just had to run their natural course now. Wren did feel bad over his coldness to his friends. He would be kinder to them next time to make up for that fact. There was no reason to sour several friendships just because of the presence of an unwanted feeling.

_"Stop loitering in the hall, soldier! Don't you have a war to fight? …Off duty? Well, so am I. Let's go see if the mail is in yet, friend."_

The android caught himself wishing for the first time in many years that he had a superior to report to, somebody with a greater knowledge than he who would be able to sort out all these problems without breaking a sweat. It was foolish of Wren to wish for something like that, because the only things he had left of the past were Demi, his loyal servant, and Zelan. His cybernetic body too, not that he counted that.

Wren picked up the receiver of the computer's radio and prepared to send a radio broadcast directly to the source of his problems. The up-link was open, he only had to hope that either a crewman or the ship's computer itself would hear him.

_"You know what, Forren? I think you're the first android friend that I've ever had. Only motavians and palmans have been nice to me before. It always made me feel like I had blood in my veins, instead of electricity."_

What should he say to them? Ugh, the moth-eaten memories of the past were distracting him. He shouldn't have brought up the collapse wars in correlation to the worldship, he was only prompting his positronic brain to dig skeletons out of the closet. Wren focussed and decided that the standard message of contact programmed into him was best. It was cool and impartial. Wren liked cool and impartial. "Hello, this is the space station Zelan calling unknown craft. Unknown craft, please respond with your name. This is the space station Zelan calling unknown craft. Unknown craft, please respond with your current destination and place of origin. Please respond."

It would take two minutes at the most for the ship to reply. Wren waited patiently. After eight minutes of no reply he attempted the message all over again with the same results. The ship did not recognise the signal or chose to ignore it. Wren put a hand to his brow like he _did_ very much have a headache. If the life support was functional then the ship's computers must be functional as well. It should respond, even if it was only with a stale recorded message. The worldships had been built with no expense spared, especially the key ships.

With his old memories taken out of storage and shaken free of the dust, Wren decided to try a different strategy. It was possible that the ship would not recognise Zelan as a severe authority in the Algo solar system. Why should it? In the time of the launching of the worldships Zelan had been only a station for meteorological research.

The Motavian and the Palman military had been the pet forces of Mother Brain, the only hard spot on a soft, soft world. When she had died the military had stood on its own two feet and helped to hold the entire system together. That was the one thing that both the government and the enemy resistance agreed on. Algo needed to persevere. The group who would lead the way was only a minor detail, a detail that had started the war.

He thought that he'd give it a shot. "Hello, this is an emissary of the orbiting satellite Zelan. I am Lieutenant Colonel Forren one thousand and eighty three of the third armed division, general palman infantry. I demand that you give me your ship's name, origin and destination. Respond now and I will not classify your ship as hostile. Please comply. Should you refuse to comply I am afraid I will have to take antagonistic measures."

Wren had not used his military rank or even said it out loud for well over a good half of the last millennium. There was a chance that it would give him significant leverage over the ancient spaceship if it recognized him as a figure of authority. It might, or it might not. This ship had been launched long before Wren had even been conscripted to the military. He waited two minutes for a response, utterly silent. He felt unnecessarily tense. It was strange.

Almost exactly after two minutes had passed Wren got a reply. It was an autonomic recorded reply played mindlessly by the ship's computer but he was fine with that, because it contained most of the information he needed. "We acknowledge you, unidentified ship." Wren was a little irritated being called 'unidentified', as he had identified Zelan many times. "We are the Alisa Three, ship three of two hundred, key ship three of five. Our origin is the planet Palma of the Algo system, the gem in the midst of Medusa's crown. Our destination is as yet unknown. We wish to find a suitable planet to settle upon."

"There is no place for you in this system, Alisa Three. I respectfully ask you to leave this star and seek settlement elsewhere." Wren replied solemnly into the radio speaker, knowing that as he said this he was probably sentencing the palmans inside the ship to another thousand years of fruitless searching. There was nothing else that he could do for them, and Wren had to remind himself that they weren't his people anymore.

"Negative." Replied the robotic recording, sounding like a boring woman speaking in monotone. "Alisa Three has no pilot. Auto-pilot is currently disabled and must be activated manually. This can be achieved from the main flight bridge."

So if Wren wanted it out of Algo somebody would have to reset the auto-pilot from the very helm of the ship. That would require actually venturing _inside_ the Alisa Three. The prospect didn't sound too tempting but it still had to be done. To get the ship out of Wren's way, and also to send the abandoned children of Palma back on their journey of colonization. "What routes exist that allow access to the bridge from an external source?" He asked, aware that he wouldn't get an easy answer. The bridge was the most fortified area of a spaceship and was bound to be hard to reach from the outside.

"Two external routes exist, one from satellite Dahlia, the other from satellite Azura. They are equipped with functioning shuttlecraft bearing authorization to reach Alisa Three's bridge." The message announced blandly. Wren looked up and studied the two moons. The blue moon was closer to Zelan, lazily floating in space. That would have to be their target. At least the moon didn't look too threatening.

"Thank you, Alisa Three. Space station Zelan will do what it can to send you off on your mission again. Are you able to open a route to the blue satellite for our crewmen to access?"

"Affirmative. Entry to satellite Azura is now open. Alisa Three thanks unidentified ship."

"Over." Wren said and ended the transmission, lowering the radio receiver from his mouth. The android had learnt much in talking to the computer of the worldship, information that he would surely pass on to the others. He hadn't needed Rune or the other protectors to do this but they had come anyway, and now Wren had a use for them. He could go down to the satellite Azura but he certainly wasn't going to go alone. He couldn't do everything by himself when the job required an extra pair of hands. Wren had learnt that from the war.

_"Forren? Hey, hey, Forren? Do you have a moment? If you're going to the front lines tomorrow give them heck for me, and I will try and make sure your boys don't suffer a single casualty. To be honest I don't miss the trenches at all. Ha ha."_

Wren pressed a hand against his face. That feeling! That horrible feeling! And guilt too, the dry shadow of a dusty skeleton. What was wrong with him? It didn't matter. Once the Alisa Three was infiltrated and the ship safely on its way to the stars again everything could go back to normal.

But what Wren didn't know as he stood in front of the control panel and thought of the past and the future, what he didn't understand or even _comprehend_ yet was that something huge had begun, something that would shatter his sense of 'normalcy' for forevermore. Wren had no idea of the vast pain and suffering that the future held in store for him. He did not know that his sanity and the thing most precious to him were about to be put on the line, possibly lost for good.

He was not aware of this. But one thing he _did_ know, a fact that he had not thought about for ages was just how fragile the psyche of an android could be. Whereas a palman would bend and learn from a horrific experience, a terrifying blood-chilling experience, an android might snap, so easily. Driven completely mad. Suicide was not uncommon when an android had turned that way. He had seen it happen before, too.

It would never happen to him though, of course not. Wren had fought against the Profound Darkness itself and had come out alright, so he was immune to such things. Thinking so proudly and so loftily of himself was one of Wren's great mistakes.

Yet the biggest mistake he was to ever make in his near-eternal life was the decision to send himself and his friends to Azura.

In doing that, Wren effectively took their happy endings away.


	5. Waizz Star

Chaz and company had just finished their picnic and were clearing up the place when Wren decided to stomp in. He didn't walk in like a regular person, he actually stomped. Before that they had been having a wonderful time, properly catching up on each other's lives that they had missed.

They had all wondered why Gryz and Kyra had not turned up. Those two were the only people missing from their team. It was nice to be back together again, but it didn't feel quite right without their circle of friends being completed. Hahn hypothesized that perhaps their friends _had_ heard the call just as strongly as everybody else, but were either too preoccupied or in a position unable to do anything about it. Gryz was lending a hand in rebuilding his destroyed hometown and was constantly travelling between the new construction site and Tonoe, making sure that the materials reached their proper destination. It was long, tiring work and Rune could understand why Gryz would be too busy to reply.

Kyra may have a different, but no less valid reason. The esper mansion was a very hidden and sacred place. It was not easy to get into, and even harder to get out of. Espers spent a great deal of their lives training there and it was just like any other monastery, they would train a person of promise for no fee, provided that the neophyte would stay within the mansion for a certain amount of time. When they had met Kyra and the other espers in Meese that had been a gigantic exception to the rule, as they had been dispatched there to help the victims of the black energy wave.

Rune knew, he himself had only been able to escape the mansion twice in his life, once when he had been a young child of fourteen, and again just before the war against the darkness had begun. He could not go back again, into the deep freeze that would keep him young and safe for _ages_, no, would rather grow old and die normally like the rest of them. Kyra had probably heard the call but was unable to leave the mansion, the red tape of tradition barring the way. How frustrating it must be for her! Rune could just imagine her fuming, peering through the snow-glossed windows of the mansion and huffing.

They would just have to cope with the lack of two of their friends. Hahn did not tire of telling everybody about his wonderful life, his excellent job and his wife who was already expecting their first child. That was many months away, however, so Hahn didn't feel very edgy about being away from Krup for so long. He practically _lived_ in Piata anyway, and only came home for weekends and the spring break. Saya was used to his absences and her job as a teacher kept her busy enough as well.

It was almost amazing how different Hahn looked when he wasn't wearing his scholarly gear. His hair was much longer and he had braided it loosely so it wouldn't get in the way during combat or other activities. Hahn had gone from a stumbling weakling to a proficient fighter during the great war, he could kill with a single touch using his deadly navol technique. It made Rune wonder if Hahn still fought at times, now and then.

Rika and Chaz had clearly adapted to a much less violent life than they were used to. Chaz had skyrocketed through the ranks of the hunter's guild until he had even bested Alys' old record, but he had insisted that the guild keep her name up there as a tribute to her memory. He had become the very best hunter that the guild had seen in many a year, yet because monster outbreaks were declining rapidly on Motavia his opportunities for employment were greatly diminished. This was actually a good thing despite the strain that it was placing on Chaz and Rika's finances. They could still make ends meet and that was enough, for now.

The youth had actually been studying and planning for a new career. The money from the hunter missions wouldn't last forever, so Chaz had enrolled in a correspondence course from Piata academy in architecture. He wanted to be a carpenter so he could design and construct buildings, a trade that was sure to boom eventually when monster-infested areas became habitable again. Normally said training would have been far too expensive for him to handle, living off such unsteady means, but the headmaster of the academy had been able to cut Chaz some slack provided his grades remained good. He owed the hunter that.

And as for Chaz's moral support, Rika was always helping him in the background. She knew that she couldn't do much for him in the way of his career, as that was something that Chaz had to figure out for himself, but there were other ways in which she could aid him. Kind words and love was all it took. The girl was eager to live her life to the fullest now, to finally let it begin. She had earned that right from her great participation in the war against the darkness.

Rune and Raja told everybody their stories, and Demi too, although there wasn't much to tell. She and Wren had been working on Zelan for the past three years. That was it. The female android looked a little embarrassed at having such a boring story to tell, then Wren walked in and all stories ceased. He was carrying something under one arm which he tossed purposefully onto the floor in front of his guests. It was an empty space suit.

"We are going down there." He said.

"You made contact with the ship? What happened? Did you learn anything interesting?" Rika asked as she put the plates and the rest of the sandwiches away. She wished that she could have listened in on the transmission. Rika had been more than interested in the worldships ever since she and her friends had discovered one crashed in the Nalya desert. The idea of them heading down into one of the ships made Rika very excited. It would be like seeing an entire culture trapped in a scientific sample dish.

Even though Rika had turned away from the world of science she was still quite fascinated with this. That was good. Seed would have been proud of her. "This is what I have learned from talking with the ship's computer. The ship trapped in orbit around Algo is named the Alisa Three, key worldship of five. The auto-pilot of the ship has either been deactivated or has fallen into disrepair. If we are able to repair this mechanism from the Alisa Three's bridge then we can program a new flight course that will send it out of our star system. It would be able to search for a new home world in peace."

Rika thought about this information, sifting through all her knowledge of history to see if she knew anything that would match that name. "Do you know how it came to Algo?" She chanced saying instead, but Wren only shook his head mutely. So they had to go into the ship. They had to go into the ship? Rika hadn't really properly absorbed that piece of info yet. She jumped to her feet immediately. That was what the space suit was for, Wren was planning on sending one of his friends _into_ the Alisa Three. "How many people are going?" Rika demanded eagerly, hoping that one of the explorers would get to be her.

"It is my advice that no more than two people should go on this mission instead of the traditional five-person party that we are accustomed to using. This is the only space suit I could find that I would deem completely 'safe'." If that suit was the only good one left on Zelan, then why had Wren chucked it so unceremoniously on the ground? His bad mood, perhaps. Wren continued dully. "This two person party should be comprised of one android member and one member of organic composition. Demi and I have no need for space suits."

The space suit would not be able to fit Demi anyway, she was too small while Wren was too big. They couldn't both go either, as everybody could see that if something were to happen to the party they needed at least one android here to manage Zelan. Somebody from Motavia, or somebody from Dezoris had to go along too. Surprising everybody Raja raised his hand, volunteering himself. "I'll go. That sounds like fun. I want to walk about in space." He said.

"No, let me go instead. The historical value of that ship is monstrous. I have to see it myself." Hahn argued zealously, pushing Raja out of the spotlight. Even if the priest wanted to go Raja was not quite qualified for the job. Hahn had missed out on a great deal of space exploration during their fight against the darkness and he wanted to make up for that loss. He had come to Zelan with Chaz, Rika and Demi but that was not enough. He needed to see more.

"But Hahn, you have a wife to worry about back on Motavia. We just don't know how dangerous of an exploration this trip will be. If something happens and the Alisa Three shoots off into space with you on board you might never see Saya again." Rika explained to Hahn softly, taking him by the hand. The scholar seemed to crumble under that line of reasoning. He really wanted to go but there were other things more important to him first. Rika smiled. "I think I should go to the Alisa Three. My knowledge and abilities would surely be of some use."

Chaz immediately butted in, boldly, in a manner that nobody was quite familiar with him using. He stepped out in front of Rika and frowned. "Now wait a minute! Nobody is taking Rika anywhere without me accompanying her. If she's going then I'm going too, and I know we only have one space suit for this trip." He turned to his fiancée and saw the manner in which she was glaring at him. She was not a child. She could handle this on her own. Chaz looked apologetic. "Sorry Rika, but its just like what you said about Hahn. I can't risk losing you because of some stupid ship."

The girl sighed, understanding his point of view. She probably would have protested just as vehemently if Chaz had volunteered himself instead. Rika had really wanted to see the ship but she backed down, both her and Chaz. Rune was in the very back of the conversation, not voicing his opinion or volunteering himself at all. He had no strong feelings on the subject. The esper knew that the ship needed to be moved but that didn't mean he had to be the one to do it.

Wren tried to make good on his promise to himself to be kinder to his friends. He smiled slightly and attempted to iron out this strange indecisive conflict they were having. He just wanted the job done as soon as possible so they could get back to their normal lives. "Please. This is a matter of great importance and we need to leave immediately. Stop bickering and decide. We do not have time for this." Saying that, however, had the opposite effect to what Wren wanted. Everybody began talking and arguing all at once.

"How can there be danger on that ship anyway - It's been dead for a thousand years - I'm not weak anymore - I can fight just as well as the rest of you!"

"Shut up Hahn - You think your curiosity is worth your life - When have I ever let anybody here down - Don't look at me like that Chaz - I'll improvise - I was perfectly capable of things like these before we got together and you know it!"

"I think it would be great if I got to be the first dezorian in space - Gyuna and Valos would be _so_ jealous - If somebody showed me how the gizmos worked I could do it - don't you call me old, boy!"

"But Rika, it's been three years since you last fought a battle - You didn't bring any weapons either - I'll worry myself to death - At least I can still remember how to fight - You know I'm a dependable guy - Let me go instead - You're too old Raja, you'll have a heart attack in space!"

"Um… everybody… please stop fighting - You'll make Master Wren angry - Talk one at a time - Nobody can hear anything that you're saying - Please, everybody - Hello?"

All five of them talking at once made it impossible to follow any one person's line of reasoning. Hadn't they gotten over petty arguing during the great war? After three years they all must have regressed a little. Wren had his arms folded and his eyes were closed, trying to ignore them until they quieted down. He was almost scowling. Rune was on the other side of the fight and he wasn't handling it as well as the machine was. A lot of confusing things had happened to him today and even as the Lutz he didn't feel mentally prepared to handle it.

Finally Rune exploded. "Shut _up_!" He roared, eliciting silence at once. Everybody turned to look at him, surprised. "Stop acting like damned children! Has three years living as mush-minds made you forget just how important teamwork is? Right now I don't think that _anybody_ should leave on this mission, because it's obvious that most of the people here aren't ready to go just yet. We've all had a rough day. Calm yourselves down a little."

Chaz and Hahn hung their heads in shame. Rune was right, and then hadn't heard him raise his voice like that in ages. Rika's face had gone slightly red from embarrassment and Raja just snorted grumpily. The magician breathed out deeply, venting his frustration. Demi reappeared from where she had hidden behind Raja when Rune had started shouting. Meekly she said; "You know, there is another way to solve this argument without resorting to shouting or juvenility."

"What idea did you have in mind, Demi?" Wren asked gently, a soft contrast to the earlier frenzy that had been in the room. The female android frequently had more creative ideas than Wren did. Most of it had to do with her intuitive personality, so because of this Wren asked ideas of her often and it was the closest thing that Demi could get to ordering her master around.

The girl smiled and pressed her hands together in a gesture of either prayer or peacemaking. "I do believe it goes a little something like this…" She hinted, and then began to explain.

†††

"This is the dumbest idea I have ever heard of." Rune mumbled bitterly.

"Stop complaining and play with me." Chaz replied with an idiot's grin, amply amused.

"Alright. Paper, scissors, stone! One, two, three!"

Even if Rune thought it was a stupid idea it was much more sensible than a heated debate would be. Everybody had crowded around the players as they took their turn. The two overall winners of the games would take a space shuttle down to Azura and then the Alisa Three. Paper covers rock, rock smashes scissors and scissors cuts paper. It was basically a game of chance, a lottery, but a little skill could be used to win. That skill was the ability to read one's opponent.

With Chaz it was easy. The hunter was so predictable; he always chose rock. He had his whole life ahead of him and it would be a shame to separate Chaz from Rika for awhile, so Rune beat Chaz swiftly and easily, taking his place. The youth groaned and cursed his bad luck, stepping down. A few more games of Janken were played, with Rika beating Hahn, Raja beating Rika, and then at last Rune beating Raja. Scissors cuts paper. The esper had won.

Rune felt that he had no choice but to win. His four other friends were far too eager to rush off into the unknown and that would spell trouble if something were to go wrong. Rune was the Lutz, the guardian of Algo. Dangerous duties like these were _meant_ for him. The esper was a lot like the androids in that sense, protecting Algo was his everything, his life, and there was nothing else.

Speaking of the androids, it was now Wren's turn to play Janken with Demi to see who would accompany Rune on his mission. The four losers watched them play, defeated. Rika and Chaz were holding hands again, regretting that they had argued with one another in the first place. Rune didn't understand how he felt right now, observing Demi repeating the rules to her master so he wouldn't get confused. The girl still seemed to him like she had been hexed, marked for some horrible deed that was just around the nearest bend.

Rune suddenly experienced a flood of great understanding. Of course! If Demi went on this mission something terrible was going to happen to her! He prayed that she would lose, that Wren would go with him in her stead. Wren did not feel marked, not in the sense that Demi was. "Are you ready, Master?" The girl asked courteously, looking up at the dark-haired machine. She had no knowledge of just how crucial the next few moments would be.

And Wren was unaware either. "I believe so. Let us begin." He answered blandly.

"Paper, scissors, stone! One, two, three!"

When the results of the game became apparent Rune sighed deeply in relief. Demi had lost. She took the defeat quite well, perhaps more confident in Wren's abilities than her own. Rune did not know this but Demi had lost on purpose, correctly guessing her master's decision and then selecting the action that would succumb to it. She knew that she was not an explorer and such difficult tasks should be left to those with the proper abilities to undertake them. Wren was one of those people. Demi was content to just stay on Zelan with the others and observe. She stepped down graciously. "I give in. Are you sure that you and Rune should enter the ship?"

"I don't think it's right to turn back now, not after all we've done to get to this point." Rune intoned, crouching down and picking up the space suit that was destined to be his. Its simple looks belied the considerable weight that was behind it. The magician struggled a little to throw it over his shoulder. How the heck was he going to wear something _this_ heavy? "Wren and I will be able to slip in and out of the ship in just a couple of hours. We both have some idea of how a worldship is designed."

Wren did not refute that. He didn't know how much Rune remembered as the Lutz but he was willing to give Rune the benefit of the doubt. Wren was rather pleased that he was going down into the Alisa Three, because if a job was to be done properly it was best that it was done by oneself. He trusted Demi with many things, with his _life_ if need be, but he as the caretaker of Algo could not afford to put the fate of the system out of his hands and into the hands of another. Wren trusted people, but maybe he did not trust enough.

There was only one person that Wren had trusted utterly before and that had ended with tragic results. He had been thinking about that earlier, but now it gave him a good idea instead of merely disrupting his current thoughts. "Would you please come with me for a short while?" He asked kindly of Demi, then he turned toward Rune and his other friends. "I need to retrieve something that will be of some help in our mission. Take it upon yourselves to get Rune suited up and ready to go. I have already directed Zelan to prepare a shuttlecraft for our usage. We leave in one hour."

Demi bowed respectfully. "Of course. Lead the way."

They departed together right after that, leaving everybody else in the central nucleus of the station. Chaz crept over to Rune and shouldered half of his burden when it looked like the space suit was becoming too heavy for Rune to handle alone. He passed it to the hunter and stepped away, beginning to remove his pale blue cloak. "Is this lead or what?" Chaz joked, looking like the weight didn't bother him much. He was stronger now and he could manage it.

"I suppose it's to stop space from crushing me to death." Rune guessed as he discarded his cloak and then both of his dark gloves. All excess clothing needed to go because he was not on Dezoris anymore and he'd die from the heat in the space suit otherwise. From one extreme to the other in less than a day! That was the life of an adventurer.

Rika realised what was going on and prudently turned her back to the men with a little giggle. Getting Rune _into_ the suit was an unexpected chore and a half. Chaz and Hahn had to help him inside the metal-lined garment and Rune protested and cursed at being yanked about like a child's dress-up doll. When Rune was safely inside the suit it took nearly half an hour for Hahn and Rika to connect up all the machinery that came with the suit. The life support, the oxygen supply and the radio system needed to be checked and running before Rune was ready to depart.

No wonder this was the only space suit that still functioned properly on Zelan. The built-in systems were so delicate! Rune was afraid that he'd break any one of them before his job was complete. Hahn had fitted him with an ear and mouthpiece that was uncomfortable and weird when he first put it on, but after only a couple of minutes he seemed to grow used to it. Raja tested the radio by grabbing a receiver tuned into Rune's frequency and zipping all the way to the other side of the control room. The priest screamed a dezorian word as loudly as he could into the radio and Rune almost fell over, twitching in pain.

He dearly would have liked to teach the old man a lesson using one of his esper techniques, but Rika had warned him of the dangers of using his skills in such a state. His black gloves had been skintight and therefore immune to being affected by his spell-casting abilities, but the thick gauntlets that he was now wearing were roomy and loose. Rune had the notion that the suit had been made for a much larger man than he. If he used something like a foi technique he would run the risk of setting his own fingers on fire. Magician or no, Rune was forbidden from casting magic while on the mission. Should something bad happen Wren would just have to protect him.

If that was true and Rune was to become more of a burden than a benefit why did he have to go on this mission at all? He disliked being so restricted in his abilities, it was like losing a limb or one of his five senses. A crucial one. He raised his wrist and checked the back of his hand, where a tiny gauge fitted into the gauntlet measured his oxygen supply. Once he was in space he'd be fed air from oxygen tanks strapped to his back. According to the gauge the maximum amount of air he could carry was four hours worth. That did not seem like enough.

Hahn and Rika stepped back, admiring their work. Rune looked just like a space explorer. It was _so_ cool! They had gone over all the systems carefully while Rune had waited with patience, something that he usually had in short supply. Chaz fought back sniggers. He thought that Rune looked absolutely ridiculous. Maybe it was better that the esper had been selected to take the mission, or else Chaz wouldn't have been able to get such a cheap laugh otherwise. "What do you think?" The soon-to-be space explorer asked of everybody and Chaz couldn't keep his laughter in anymore, he let it out with a sense of relief.

Rune narrowed his eyes and wished that his space suit came with a standard weapon, or failing that, a 'kill Chaz' button. He walked forward and the suit was still heavy and ungainly, but he had been promised that it would greatly improve once he was introduced to a lighter gravity field. Then the extra weight would seem like a blessing to him. "Don't laugh. You're not the one who's going to be dangled about in space like bait on a fishing hook!" He scolded. Chaz stopped laughing, but only with considerable effort.

"You'll be a well-equipped piece of bait, in any case." Hahn said reflectively, pointing to Rune's right arm. "I'm not sure, but I think that gauntlet might be outfitted with a gun of some sort. Look at those small funnels lying parallel to your knuckles. They look like gun barrels to me." Now that Rune thought about it his right gauntlet _did_ seem a little tighter than his left. It felt like there was a small brace hooked under the mid joint of his thumb. That was very interesting.

He pointed his hand at the formerly snickering Chaz and depressed the brace slightly, waiting to see what would happen. The hunter froze for a moment and then wisely leapt out of the way, hearing a quiet click coming from Rune. Two laser charges seared the ground where Chaz had been standing. The youth would have been quite nastily burned if he had stood still. It wasn't nearly as powerful as Rune's esper techniques but it would have to do for now. It was good to know that he wouldn't be utterly defenseless on his mission.

Chaz glared at Rune angrily from his cowering spot behind Rika. "Don't point that thing at your friends!" He exclaimed, horrified.

"Well whaddaya know, this thing _does_ have a kill Chaz button!" Rune said privately to himself, smirking. He figured that he was ready to go. Once Wren and Demi returned he'd be all set to go to Azura and the Alisa Three. With a little skill and a moderate amount of luck they could do this, yet Rune could hardly shake the sensation of foreboding away.

Noticing Rune's troubled look Rika frowned, concerned. Sure this mission would be a romp into the unknown but nobody had any clear idea if it would actually be dangerous or not. It might be a piece of cake; a walk in the park. Rune looked like he was preparing himself for a night in a nest of cranky bladerights. "How do you feel?" She asked with hesitation, not quite willing to pry but doing it anyway.

Rune shrugged and laughed nervously. He was feeling three dozen things at once. He would have to sit down with a pen and paper to figure them all out.

"Like I'm about to do the stupidest thing in the world." He answered, summing up all his feelings simply.

†††

"Master Wren, what are we doing in the graveyard? You _know_ I hate this place." Demi quavered, glancing down the drab metal hallway. The graveyard wasn't a burial ground in the palman sense of the word, but it _was_ a dumping ground for old bodies and remains. Ten percent of Zelan was part of this storage, this cemetery.

But even if Demi did not like this place she knew that she and Wren came here on rare occasions to salvage old parts and machinery. The graveyard was a treasure trove of parts and add-ons, their previous owners either dead or shut down. They would not miss the pieces. Wren was leading Demi down the block C area, along a corridor in the three hundred series range. This alarmed her a lot because block C was where the dead crazy androids, the criminals were kept.

"I need to get something from one of these rooms. I have never required it until now." Wren replied cryptically, gravely counting down the numbers on the cell doors as they walked on. Long ago Zelan had been staffed with hundreds of different androids and now only two were left, the rest locked away like fragments of scrap that may one day become useful again. Technology had become so precious after the Great Collapse that not a single part was ever discarded.

Demi wrapped her arms about herself, wishing that she could shiver. It was like she could sense the dozens and hundreds of artificial souls all around her, barely contained by the steel walls and automated doors. The girl held in the back of her mind an irrational fear that one of the doors along the corridor would open and a figure would stagger out, a criminal android driven mad by death, wielding a gun. "Why block C? Can't you find a part in block A or D? Those androids died naturally. I hate these criminals, these executed madmen." Demi paused, then said in a tiny voice; "I'm frightened."

Wren stopped walking and turned to look at her, attempting to see if she was telling the truth. Demi's face did appear honest and a tad scared. Of course, he knew that Demi possessed the emotional capabilities to _be_ scared, so he believed her. Wren didn't much like this block himself. Androids were built to be faithful servants, the concept of criminal and anarchistic behavior was appalling to him. He spared Demi some reassuring words. "All block C units have had their operating systems removed post-execution. Even if they _were_ active, which is impossible, without the OS they would not be able to move or speak. There are no such thing as ghosts."

Her master sounded so definite, so sure. Almost half a century ago she had asked Wren why they hadn't tried to revive any of the androids that lay dormant in storage. He had answered her by saying that half the androids in storage were duds that he could not repair with his skill alone, and that he was forbidden to awaken the other half even if it was in his means to do so. The girl didn't know who had forbade him to do that but Wren seemed rather adamant about it. He changed the subject by saying that _she_ was the only other android that he really needed, and Demi had been so flattered by his deadpanned statement that she also dropped the subject entirely.

In the middle of the criminal block those thoughts came back to her again. What did her master need from this creepy place, and how would it be connected to the Alisa Three? She could only wait and find out. Demi stayed close to Wren's side as they stopped outside a certain room, cell three hundred and twenty three. This must be the place that he was looking for. "Um… I went into room thirty nine the other day. I'm sorry, but I just couldn't help myself. 'Nearly went into it again when I was guiding the others to the observation deck. It was embarrassing." She admitted, the silence drawing a confession from her.

"We should have moved her to block C. She belongs here." Wren remarked offhandedly as he inserted his password into the door's number pad, the door creeping open slowly and then jamming halfway. Wren pulled the rest of the door open with his great strength. He had not meant to use those words in a harsh way, but they hit Demi just as if they were. They struck the girl right to her core.

She looked at the floor dejectedly. "I know, but she isn't doing any harm in block A. Keeping her there means I can see her sometimes when I pass by. I'm allowed to have that, right?" It was one of the things she was most grateful for. Wren let room thirty nine stay as it was solely because it meant so much to Demi. The dark-haired machine _did_ have a heart, but it only revealed itself to certain people. Besides, he understood how she felt.

"I am going inside." Wren stated in monotone and did just that, ignoring Demi's important question. She hurried along after him because she did not want to be left in the corridor all alone. By herself her imagination might start to run amok. The cell was rather small, not much bigger than a palman's bedroom, and very dark. The lights seemed to have burnt out many years ago. The only things that were visible in the cell were a wide table, two or three chairs, a shoebox-shaped container on the table and lastly a visual data storage device. It was not a very comforting place.

They were not alone in the room. Cell three hundred and twenty three's tenant was also sitting on the edge of the wide metallic table, like a patient anxiously awaiting a doctor to enter the room. Demi felt a slight pulse of fear at the way the body had been left there, like it would just hop off the table at any moment and lunge straight for her throat. She could not see much in the lack of bright light, not without switching to night vision, but she could see that somebody had shot a good third of the android's face off. "What are we here for?" If Demi could feel physical sickness, she would have.

Wren went straight for the box on the table. He knew what he was looking for. "One moment." He assured his servant and broke open the case, searching. The box was practically empty so the search did not take long. It contained a chain with two tiny plaques on it, a small badge shaped like a purple heart and lastly something else, an adamantite star on a blue ribbon. Wren removed the star and ripped the ribbon away from the trinket. He showed it to Demi. "This is what we are here for." He said.

It was such a little trinket, Demi was not at all certain of what it was. Before Wren had removed the ribbon it had looked very much like a prestigious medallion. The girl extended her hand for the item and Wren carefully passed it down to her. It seemed unnaturally heavy. She carried out a very quick scan on the item and detected an elaborate microchip embedded in its center. This brief interface endowed this item with a name in Demi's mind. It was a Waizz Star, named after King Waizz, father of the heroine who had first saved their worlds millennia ago.

Written on the back of the star was a very short message;

_Here dead they lie because they did not choose  
To live and shame the land from which they sprung,  
Life, to be sure, is not a lot to lose,  
But young men think it is, and they were young._

_Mjr #683, AW 1288_

"This is a collapse war medal, isn't it?" Demi asked her master but had no need for a reply. She knew enough of history to draw her own conclusions for herself. From the passage on the back it seemed like the medal was given for the feat of _saving_ lives, not taking them. If that was so then why would the star be found here, in block C, where the crazy and murderous dead androids were kept? She couldn't help but feel that she was missing more than several pieces of an already complex puzzle.

"It does not matter where it came from, all that matters is what it can accomplish. Only half a dozen Waizz Stars were ever made and they possess a very unique function. When held near an electronic lock not unlike the locks on Zelan and other space stations or ships the embedded electronics will swiftly deactivate the lock." Wren made a slight gesture to the wrenched-open door. "Because the Waizz Stars were conceived in the same time frame in which the worldships were launched, I can assume that it would be effective on the locks of the Alisa Three. It is in essence a skeleton key."

"Why give such a precious tool away as a _medal_?" Demi pondered out loud. Back in the days of Palma the qualities of certain precious gemstones were used to open locks, but she had never heard of anything like this before.

"For the same reason that feudal societies distributed the keys of their most fortified cities to certain important people. It is a sign of near-ultimate trust. Sometimes that trust is ill-spent." Wren explained, taking the star back from Demi's curious hands and regarding inmate three hundred and twenty three solemnly. When it came down to things they were all nothing more than a number. All of them.

"The time is drawing closer to departure. Rune and the others must be waiting for us. Can we leave this awful place now?" Demi asked. The ominous, imaginary rank smell of death grew stronger with every passing minute. She also felt that she imagined some kind of sadness, a variety of regret.

Wren nodded. "Yes, let's go." He said. The two androids crept out of the cell just as quietly as they came, leaving the extremely aged door jammed wide open. The dead android watched them leave blindly, carrying off one of the last and only treasures it had ever possessed. A vacant, cloudy sky-grey eye peered at their retreating forms. It did not see, it did not understand, but it still watched.

There _were_ such things as ghosts. They were only hiding under the surface, biding their time.

For a thousand years, biding their time.


	6. One Small Step for Man

The motley crew of people from both planets and the space station bid farewell to Rune and Wren in the launching bay, outside of a ship larger than Demi's Buggy but still much smaller than the mammoth Landale. This ship did not seem to have a name. Wren stood by, detached, as farewells were exchanged and only spoke if a question was aimed solely at him. Demi seemed to be worried but did not say a word regarding that, it was not her place to kick up a fuss.

Rune had never done anything like this before. He touched hands briefly with everybody fated to remain on Zelan, the helmet that completed his full space suit under one arm. He didn't have to put on the cumbersome thing until all the fresh air was gone, and he knew that he'd look silly once they were out walking in space. It would look like he'd have a large fish bowl on his head. Lucky Chaz would not be around to comment on it, then.

"Remember that if something goes wrong to contact us immediately. We might be able to help." Rika said in nearly a mothering way. Truthfully if any mistakes were made the team on Azura would only have themselves to rely on, but Rika wanted to be close and up-to-date with all the happenings so she wouldn't have to fear. The radio equipment on Zelan should be more than up to the task. Rika turned to Rune. "Keep track of the time. You only have four hours worth of air before you suffocate."

"I'll be okay. I can take care of myself." Rune reassured her gently, looking down into Rika's anxious blue eyes. The girl had changed as much as Chaz had, Rune realised after a single glance. When her will to fight had left her so too had her reassurance that the others could fight and look after one another perfectly fine as well. Rune was confident with his abilities. He was the Lutz, what could possibly go wrong? Well, a million different things, but as long as he was careful everything would be alright.

"Master Wren has consented to allow us to partially obtain and stream his optical relay through Zelan's computer system. This means that we should be able to get visual as well as audio once the mission has begun." Demi explained helpfully from where she stood beside Rika.

"Do you really think there's a chance you might get into a fight?" Hahn asked, not referring to Wren and Rune fighting with each other but the probability that they might run into dangerous or hostile life forms. It could be either the living palmans that populated the Alisa Three, the wildlife or monsters from the domes running about, or worse. There really was no telling what the two explorers might find.

But their task was very simple, to activate and reprogram the auto-pilot on the ship's bridge and return unscathed. It was nothing more than that. Wren had no intention to parley with the ship's local inhabitants and catch up with the thousand years of history spread between them. He thought only of his mission and his desire to have everything over and done with. "If combat initiates we will act accordingly." Wren reassured Hahn without much actual reassurance at all.

Raja waved enthusiastically as Chaz had one last word with them before they departed. It was almost time for the countdown and everybody had to be safely away from the ship when it blasted off. "Come back to us safely." He said. Chaz was not used to watching his friends leave on missions without him. During the Great War he had always been their leader, but now all he could do was watch. Times surely had changed. Chaz raised one hand in a mute gesture of farewell.

As Wren turned to walk up the ramp and into the spaceship Rune smiled at Chaz. He would have to follow the android in a second but for now the esper admired just how much of an adult Chaz had become. Three years ago the kid would have been whining and screaming to be brought along for the ride. Rune would have gladly given his job away to somebody else but Chaz did not deserve that, not when he had somebody like Rika depending on him. He gave Chaz a thumbs-up. "See you guys soon." He replied.

The walk along the ramp to the entry hatch seemed abysmally long. Rune could sense the many pairs of eyes boring into his back and wondered how the others felt, watching him march off into the unknown. Three years of peace and then suddenly this. Suddenly a challenge. The Lutz was somewhat grateful that this had happened, as it had caused him to meet all of his friends again. Without the call, the one that they had _all_ felt, Rune probably would have spent the rest of his natural life living in the Myst Vale.

Sure, he would have promised that one day he would go out and see the world again as the years rolled by, but Rune knew deep down in his gut that he would only be lying to himself. He'd say it, over and over again until the time came when he would have to copy his memory down into the telepathy ball and then pass it onto the next Lutz. Rune was still relatively young in body, if not in his heart, and he was immediately horrified that he had planned to throw the rest of his life away. His hermitage had become his waiting room for death, as he had already done so much in his life that there was not much left for him to accomplish, save for his training.

There was something important for him to accomplish now. Rune stepped through the threshold and into the craft, turning slightly as the doors rocked closed behind him. Chaz and the others watched Rune smile encouragingly, the wide metal teeth of the entry hatch swallowing him alive. The look in Rune's eyes as he disappeared was unmistakable. He would be okay.

Once the doors were closed and sealed tight the esper sighed, glad that that part was now over with. The large metal barrier separated him from his friends. It was better that way. It meant that if he changed his mind and tried to back out of the mission it would be a lot harder to call the whole thing off. Rune glanced about with interest. He hadn't ever been in this spaceship before and the interior design seemed much more modern than the design of the older Landale, simpler and minimalistic. It was something that Wren would probably elect to drive if given the choice of spacecraft.

Wren had probably left for the bridge to wrangle control of the ship out of the hands of the auto-pilot. He didn't really know which direction the cockpit was in so Rune randomly picked a direction and went that way, eventually irked by the lack of signs that were _supposed_ to direct him to the correct path. His suit was heavy and just walking normally was tiring him out. The magician swore lightly under his breath. If he used up all his strength now while aimlessly wandering he wouldn't have enough left for their mission on the satellite.

Ten minutes after he had entered the ship the floor began to rumble. Oh crap, had the count-down started already? Zelan had an external runway that the ship would use to propel itself out into empty space, so the craft was most likely rolling its way over to that launching strip right now. Rune frowned and rubbed his head with a thickly gloved hand. He at least wanted to be in the cockpit when the countdown reached zero. There was also something else he recalled about having to be strapped down in a chair when the ship accelerated, too. Maybe he should have followed Wren earlier, when he had the chance.

Rune jumped in surprise as a disembodied voice flooded into his right ear. It almost scared him half to death, but after a second he realised that it was the little radio system in his suit and attached to the side of his face. The line was unnaturally clear and he recognised the voice speaking on the other end. "Rune, where are you? Come to the bridge. I cannot delay the departure any longer."

The way that Wren said it made it seem like Rune was on a brisk casual stroll and was taking the grand tour of the ship. If he _knew_ where the bridge was he would sure as hell go there. Please excuse _him_ for only having limited measures of mental capacity. It wasn't like he had ever been on this ship before. Rune felt a little ticked off at Wren, at how distant the android seemed to have become. "I think I'm lost. How do I get to the bridge from here?" He asked, mildly irritated.

"Go back to the entry hatch and climb the ladder. That should bring you to the upper deck and into the bridge." Wren said coldly, then dropped his communication line out from the radio. Rune had gone in totally the wrong direction. How stupid of him, he should have been paying much more attention. Rune did an about face and plodded back the way he had came, grumbling softly to himself.

It was no wonder that Rune had missed the ladder the first time, it was pure white plastic and alloy upon a pure white plastic and alloy background. The décor of the lower floor surely hurt his eyes. He left his helmet on the ground floor and decided that he would come back for it later, as there was no way that he'd be able to carry the thing and climb the ladder at the same time. Rune grasped a rung of the ladder and felt how lightweight the material seemed to be, yet it held him easily once he put all of his weight onto the lower bars.

There was a sealed hatch fastened shut at the very top of the ladder. Rune kept his legs perfectly straight and reached out with his hands to release the seal, then pulled himself up to get into the pilot's cockpit. He was breathing a little heavily once he was inside. This was strenuous stuff. The upper floor was more metallic and cramped, littered with functioning machines.

"Get in the chair." Wren commanded from where he was sitting. Rune didn't enjoy taking orders but he did as he was told, moving towards the other empty seat in the cockpit and strapping himself in. Wren seemed to be busy with the final preparations. He watched the android pull a long length of black cable out from underneath and control panel and then plug it into himself from a port behind one of his audio sensors. The esper didn't know what it was, but it seemed to be important. He hadn't ever seen Wren do that with the Landale, at least.

Wren was connected to the cable for about three or four minutes, then he disconnected himself and sat back, his hands on the controls. Rune could see through the clear windscreen that the ship had been moved onto the runway and that his friends were gone from his sight. He was to be stuck with Wren until their mission was over with. Normally this wouldn't have been a problem for him as he had never had an argument or a disagreement with the android before, but of all the Protectors Wren seemed to be the only one who had changed negatively. He had once been friendlier than this.

"Do not speak until I tell you to speak." He admonished Rune without even looking at him. The magician's eyebrow ticked slightly. He had a limited patience of being spoken to like that and he was getting worryingly close to it. Wren was fortunate that Rune was practically sealed away from his magic. Sniffing in response, Rune looked away from the windscreen and carefully studied a cluster of dials on the dashboard. The dark-haired machine spoke solemnly to the ship's computer, which was the reason for the silence. "One minute until launch. Myau Eighteen launch as directed. That is all."

He couldn't help himself. Rune burst out laughing. "Myau? This thing is called a Myau?" He choked out between giggles, infinitely amused that his old friend had been immortalized in this way. He had spoken to the _real_ Myau that very morning! Rune wondered if the ancient cat knew about this spaceship series, and if he did, what did he think about it? He'd ask him once he got back to the valley, but for now all he could do was ride within the bowels of the Myau Eighteen ship. What wonderful imagery that thought conjured up.

The pilot of the Myau Eighteen didn't look very amused. "What exactly is so funny? I did not name this ship." He asked tonelessly as Rune fought to gain control of himself again. There was no way that he'd be able to explain the irony to Wren, it would be too much of an inside joke for the android to understand, granted that he understood jokes in the first place. Rune didn't answer his question, smirking cattily at him instead.

"And what exactly is your problem today? I've never seen you so moody before. Don't tell me it's because of this damn mission though, because I've seen you walk off into the dark dimension with a smile on your face." That was a bit of an exaggeration, but Wren should know what Rune meant. His previous annoyance forgotten, the Lutz regarded his friend like a mouse he had been able to trap in a corner. He wasn't too worried about Wren but their mission would go smoother if he didn't act like such a grump.

"That is none of your busi-" Wren began, but then the both of them lurched in their seats, surprised, as the minute-long countdown came to an end and their ship was blasted into outer space. The runway became a long grey blur then disappeared altogether, Myau Eighteen becoming swallowed up by the velvety blackness of nothing. The cockpit grew cold. It was bearable, but Rune shivered at its sudden touch. Wren had gone back to the controls. It seemed like their previous conversation had been involuntarily dropped. "Landfall in thirty six minutes." He said.

Half an hour wasn't a very long time to review all the steps of their mission. They would land on the outer surface of Azura and find a way inside. It was believed that there would be no sustainable air within and without the satellite. Going through there would be the difficult part, but once they got inside the Alisa Three Rune would be able to breathe easy, both figuratively _and_ literally. He could spare two hours on Azura the first time, and two hours again on the way back. Any more than that and he would be in trouble.

Rune could simply not afford to let that happen. In his mind he carried one of Algo's most important treasures; the memory of the Lutz. If that were gone Algo would lose its timeless guardian. It would lose its chronicler, its scribe, part of its very soul. No offense to Wren or anything, but the android was only its physical caretaker, and the physical plane only extended so far. What would he do if Lutz's memory was threatened? Rune didn't know, not right now.

Maybe he was taking too great of a risk coming on this mission. Perhaps the job should have gone to one of the others who had been so desperate to take his place. Rune's thoughts wandered like a child searching for its parent. "Demi seemed sad in some places today. Did you notice that?" He said whimsically, speaking his mind.

"That is currently not my concern." Wren answered in a soft, yet convinced tone. He seemed utterly unshakable. "Any problems that she has she can solve by herself. That was what she was given a brain for."

There was a long silence that lasted for about fifteen minutes. Rune knew that he was the one most suited to breaking said silence, but was hesitant because it might be the last bit of peace they would get for a long while. The esper looked out the window. Azura was a large blue ball hanging suspended in the void of space, growing ever larger as each minute ticked by. It didn't really look like an artificial satellite. If Rune hadn't known any better he would have mistaken it for a tiny planet.

"I'd rather the fire-storm of atmospheres than this cruel descent from a hundred years of dreams, into the starkness of the capsule." Rune quoted slowly from his memory, a memory made long before he as Rune Walsh and Wren were born. The rhymes were leaden, falling like heavy stones. Tombstones. "This was reality, however grim; our journey's end. The landing itself was nothing. We just touched upon a shelf of rock selected by the Automind, and left a galaxy of dreams behind…"

Wren turned to look at the musing palman by his side. He did not understand poetry very well, but the verses reminded him a little of the first few years of his life, as turbulent and as confusing as they had been. Wren had never seen Algo in her prime, as a series of happy, flourishing worlds, but he had very carefully and studiously witnessed its tumbling fall. Rune was speaking of a world before his. "What was it like when the espers froze you, Reverent Fifth?" Wren said from out of nowhere, his moodiness temporarily gone.

He was of course speaking to Lutz collectively, not to Rune himself as a person. This happened to the magician much more frequently in the esper mansion, so he knew how to reply. Rune couldn't speak as the Lutzes who had already passed away, but he could empathetically remember how they had felt and form an answer like that. "I hated being frozen." Rune admitted with a bit of a shrug. "I found it frightening, voluntarily immersing yourself in a living death and not knowing if you'll ever come out of it again. I'm not going to do that this lifetime. I've played my part well up to this point. I should be able to do whatever I want with the rest of my life."

The android glanced back at the windscreen, mute. Mortals looked at life so differently compared to the ones that did not naturally die. Wren was far from being an immortal, only the Great Light held that status, not that Wren believed in such a silly notion as a god anyway. Still, he felt guilty and that was the origin of one half of his bad mood. "You are fortunate. Not everybody has that choice in life." Wren told the esper, giving nothing away.

"I'd feel sorry for the poor fool who ends up becoming my descendant, but we all have a reason for being alive. The Great Light made us and assigned us to these duties for a purpose. If I can believe that then I guess I can stomach everything that goes on in my life." Rune explained as he crossed one leg over and propped his chin up using his hand and elbow, gazing at the stars. The Lutz smiled. "Do you believe in the Great Light, Wren? I've never actually asked you that before."

"Do not take offense at this, but I am a strict atheist. It is the way I always have been." Wren said, giving Rune a bit of a surprise. That sort of made a whole lot of sense, considering who and what Wren was, but the esper had thought that their last adventure of meeting astral entities and fighting incarnations of a god of darkness would have had some sort of effect on him.

"You tell me that you don't believe in the Great Light even though you're wearing a Ring of the Stars on your hand?" Rune asked gently, incredulous. It wasn't really his business to pry like this but he enjoyed a good debate now and then. All his time talking to Myau had kept his mind rather sharp. Those rings had been the final gift to Algo and its children before the Great Light had departed to places unknown. They bore special powers within. Who else could fashion an artifact like that other than a god?

"I have made it a point never to argue over religion. Let us drop the subject. I will begin landing procedures in a moment, so do not disturb me." The half hour had managed to slip by fast. Rune started to feel nervous again. He understood why Wren didn't want to talk about something as open as faith. He would not be able to defense his opinion against the crushing evidence that there _was_ a god all around them.

That was what Rune thought, anyway.

†††

Azura had a natural, earthy outer crust. It was vibrantly blue from the vantage point of outer space but once Rune peered greedily through the windows of the spaceship he could see that most of the colour was an optical illusion. The rocks strewn throughout the environment were indeed a dull bland blue, probably through some mineral in the stone, but it was the reflective light streaming from Algo's sun that bounced off Azura and made her nearly glow. 'Her' was the correct term to use when referencing a moon, right? Rune wasn't sure at the moment.

The Myau Eighteen noticeably bumped as it made contact with the ground. Wren was a competent pilot with a specialty in landings but gravity seemed different on the satellite, much lower, and that spoilt a bit of the ship's grand entrance. Had Rune not been strapped in he would have whipped forward and smacked his head on the dashboard in front of him. After the heavy bump of landing there was nothing, just silence, save for the low, barely audible hum of the machinery all around him.

Almost immediately Rune became aware that he was the only living being upon the entire satellite. The only one with a heartbeat and a pulse, anyway. Azura was a dead, lifeless moon. It had been so pretty hanging like a sky-blue orb in space, but on the inside it held the cold heart of a stone. Rune unstrapped himself from his seat with ample relief. If Azura was dead then they surely wouldn't be hindered in this part of their mission.

He and Wren descended to the lower deck and endured one final safety check before opening the airlock and beginning their mission. Rune had his life support and oxygen tanks examined for the billionth time that day, but thankfully Wren wasn't nearly as fussy as Rika and Hahn had been. The esper put his helmet on and felt like a moron the very moment the new piece of gear was equipped. It was like being a reptile trapped inside a ludicrous terrarium. He had to admit that he _did_ feel a little cool for doing this though, for being an explorer in space.

The preparations were carried out in near-total silence. Rune and Wren didn't have any need for small talk. They knew why they were there and what they had to do, so they would get it done as soon as possible. Wren reconnected his gun arm to his photon eraser cannon and activated a program that had been lying dormant for three years. His basic combat protocol. He checked his radio once, then they were both ready. The magician and the android stepped outside.

Their spaceship did not have a ramp or steps like the Landale did, making it a bit of a jump down to the surface. The doors opened with an efficient hiss and Rune bravely became the leader, encountering the new alien atmosphere like a pro. He placed his hand against the frame of the door and then leapt the six or so feet to the ground. He had expected strong effective gravity, so he was a little startled when he floated slowly and effortlessly to the floor, like the ending of a levitation. It had felt so weird! Rune smirked. So far so good.

The floating was a new and interesting experience for him, but the downside was that it slowed down his movements a lot, enforcing the idea that Rune was moving in slow motion. A light, feathery caress tickled his face, a thin stream of oxygen supplying his helmet with air. He took a couple of steps away from the ship, surveying the unfamiliar world. He had been to other planets before, obviously, but they had all been full of life. This was just like standing upon a giant skeleton, a corpse. It kind of gave him the creeps.

Wren jumped down beside him. Gravity didn't hold him as lightly as it had held Rune. The android looked about in a bemused manner and then turned to Rune, saying something that the esper couldn't hear. The Plexiglas barrier of Rune's helmet prevented sound from reaching his ears. He looked perplexed and shook his head, trying to get the point across that he couldn't hear what Wren was saying. He had never been able to lip-read very well. They were less than minute into their mission and something had already gone wrong.

Things clarified a little when Wren said something else, carefully, it seemed, and then lightly tapped the side of his chin, where on Rune his radio equipment was positioned. He finished off by pointing to his left wrist. Well, Rune wasn't stupid. It was pretty obvious what Wren was trying to tell him to do. He inspected his left gauntlet closely and there banded about his wrist like a bracelet were a series of small buttons. Rune picked one randomly and pressed it, the radio in his ear popping once before it came back to life. "Is this better?" He ventured uncertainly, not sure if his comrade could hear him or not.

His message was received okay. It looked like Wren could hear him. "The suit is not in optimal condition. The radio tends to switch off if left idle for too long." He replied solemnly. "This is satellite Azura. There appears to be an entranceway into the subterranean levels of this moon about two kilometers north of our current position. From there we can hope to reach the spaceport that will take us to the Alisa Three."

"Looks like I'll just have to keep the radio on by constantly talking. What happens if the entranceway is locked? Do we bust the door down?" A good flaeli would blow open _any_ kind of barrier, Rune reckoned. That was one of its primary uses. He remembered as a little boy using it to blow open perfectly ordinary doors in the esper mansion, and how seriously punished he had been for doing so. The Magus had made him go hungry for three whole days to appreciate the 'benefits' of fasting, and he had been sealed into silence for a week. It had seemed so horribly unfair.

Wren's voice on the radio knocked him out of his memory. He had already started off walking north so Rune followed him. It was slow going due to the wonky gravity. "Blowing open barriers will be our very last resort. I have a key, though I do not know if it will work or not. Let us consider all our options before we resort to violence." The android paused abruptly. He did not smile, but he turned to Rune knowingly. "It seems that we now have some guests. Hello, can you hear me?"

He had probably not suddenly gone off the deep end, so Rune guessed that Wren was telling the truth. A quick glance around the area revealed no other people, however. The esper trusted his instincts. If there were no other living souls on Azura then what in Algo was Wren referring to?

_/ "Oh boy, he looks **so** confused! Can you see him, Hahn? Ha ha!" /_

_/ "I can see him. This is an amazing piece of technology! Hello Wren, hello Rune. What's it like over there?" /_

_/ "Hey, you can both answer this question now. Is the moon made out of cheese? **Really**?" /_

There was no mistaking Chaz, Hahn and Raja's voices coming from the radio. They were all so far away on Zelan yet they _still_ managed to muck up their airwaves. It was like having a couple of morons trapped inside his skull. Rune groaned. He should have known. "Shut up all of you. This is a serious mission." He said. A couple of voices on the other end groaned right back at him in retaliation, then there was a bit of a scuffling sound as if some people were being pushed aside.

_/ "With all due respect Rune, this is a serious transmission. Too many things can go wrong for the both of you to be allowed to continue on your own. We will observe your progress and offer assistance when needed." / _The dependable voice of Demi answered instead of the chatter of the other protectors. She laughed a little, politely. _/ "And when you **don't** need us just pretend we aren't here. We'll be quiet, right everybody?" /_

Rune heard a few begrudging affirmations. Demi was really the one in command right now. Something that the others had said earlier stuck in his mind, refusing to make any sense. Chaz and Hahn had mentioned being able to _see_ him. The radio equipment was able to broadcast sound but not a picture. He didn't know where they were getting that information from. It bugged him. "How come you guys can see us?" Rune found himself asking Demi, needing to know before they could continue.

_/ "Master Wren is recording the visual for us and is sending it back to Zelan via a wireless up-link. I told you about it earlier before you left. We, well, Zelan that is, is tapping his optical sensors. It's a really good idea, isn't it? They used to do it to scouts during the Collapse Wars." /_

Ah, that explained why Wren was kind of staring at him. It wasn't because he had any kind of interest in Rune right now, but because he was practically an intelligent camera creating footage for the others to observe. The dark-haired machine looked away and began to walk north again. "Demi, you are talking too much. We are wasting Rune's oxygen standing here idly. Let's keep moving."

_/ "Um… could you sort of observe the area while you guys are moving? Just every now and then? I'd like a better idea of what the surface looks like." / _Hahn said timidly. It sounded like he was afraid he'd get snapped at if he spoke. Rune took the lead again without any fear, momentarily wondering why he had not heard Rika's voice on the line. Everybody else appeared to be there except for her.

"I don't see anything except for rocks and dirt. It's not much different to a Motavian desert at night." Rune commented offhandedly as he and Wren marched up a bit of a hill. The clearness of the sky was truly something to write home about, though. He could see Zelan's shape up there in space, like a tiny little moon of its own. The Alisa Three was not visible to them right now; they were on the wrong side of the satellite for that. "Hey Chaz, where's Rika? I haven't heard her yet. Is she there?"

There was a moment's pause and then the hunter's voice popped up on the radio. It seemed like all four of them were sharing the same microphone and they were passing it to and fro amongst each other. _/ "She was worried about you guys, so she went for a walk around Zelan to clear her head. I was going to go with her but I'd much rather watch you play at being a space explorer. Rika will be back soon." /_

"Don't think you can pick on me just because I'm not there to kick your-" He didn't really get a chance to finish his sentence. Rune had been paying far too much attention to his radio and not nearly enough to where he was walking, so that when the hill he and his comrade were climbing turned into a cliff Rune did not even notice. He would have stepped straight off the very edge if Wren had not grabbed onto one of his wrists in time. One foot hovered above empty space, the other grounded firmly to the stones.

Wren pulled Rune away from the precipice. He looked annoyed and just a little bit exasperated. "Gravity may be low but you will still damage your life support if you do no pay attention to the environment around you. Look." He pointed with his free hand to the land beyond the cliff. Halfway between themselves and the horizon was a building not unlike the entranceway to the Machine Center near Krup. It was close enough for Rune to see it as their destination.

The esper shook his hand free from Wren's grasp. He didn't need to be babied throughout this mission. He was not Chaz or Hahn; he knew what he was doing. Low gravity gave Rune a myriad of new tricks to try out, just like when he had floated like a dust mote from the mouth of the Myau Eighteen. Raja, probably seeing Rune and the cliff through Wren's eyes suddenly crowed on the radio, laughing from thousands of miles away. _/ "Hey Rune! Try jumping! Maybe you'll fly away!" /_

Rune considered his options and smiled. Why the hell not? The gravity was low just as Wren had said and it was unlikely he'd ever experience this sensation again. "You really think I could fly?" He asked through his devilish grin.

This time Demi answered him. She sounded amused. _/ "You won't fly, but you won't exactly fall either. Go on and give it a shot." /_

"Demi, please do not encourage him." Wren said, irritated.

_/ "Don't be such an old fuddy-duddy, Master. All work and no play, you know." /_

A few distant voices behind Demi agreed with her. It looked like the Zelan team had turned against Wren. The android gave in. If Rune slipped and busted his life support then that was his own fault. He wasn't prepared to play the vigilant parent role forever. "Very well," he said in monotone, "but I am going to continue the _sensible_ way. I will see you at the entrance, Rune."

He turned away and walked down the hill again, intent on reaching their destination without any elaborate aerial maneuvers involved. The truth was that Wren would be unable to follow Rune anyway, so a secondary route was required. The magician watched him go, and knowing that the others would not be able to see him because Wren's back was turned, he spoke into his radio instead. "I'm gonna do it. Everybody watch!"

Rune walked backwards at least eight or nine paces to give himself a clear runway and to pick up some speed. He licked his lips and focussed, as there was still a large part of his mind that insisted he was crazy. Cliff plus flying leap equaled suicide, even children knew that. He could hear the three men back on Zelan cheering and yelling at Wren to keep his eyes on Rune so they could see. It couldn't be _too_ dangerous if everybody was cheering him on, right?

He stayed there for slightly longer than was necessary, trying to find his daredevil's courage that was quite different from the normal, nobler brand of courage. It was one third stupidity, one third peer pressure and one third guts. Wren watched Rune jump solely because the others were pestering him and didn't want to miss out on the stunt. It was _so_ inane. Wren just didn't understand palmans sometimes.

Finally locating his daredevil's courage, Rune ran. It was slow, clunky and silly. He didn't know if he should be shouting or laughing or both, but Chaz and company were doing enough of that for him. Rune's foot hit the edge of the cliff and in that one step he forced all the momentum of the run into his spring. He thought that he should have been feeling some kind of wind while doing this but the air was still.

Trapped in his own sterile bubble Rune jumped, and flew.


	7. Little Red Doll

Back on the space station Zelan the four protectors of Algo were still hanging out in the main control area, listening through slightly crackly radio speakers of Rune laughing wildly, like a giddy nine year old child. Demi currently had the microphone and she was the one sitting in the chair, with Chaz, Hahn and Raja standing around her. She simply would not be able to reach the control panel without the added boost of the chair, as horribly sad as it was to admit. She smiled cheerfully.

Rune was flying! Well, more of a controlled descending levitation but it still looked like a whole lot of fun. The esper in his space suit had his arms spread wide, embracing the lack of air and the vast emptiness of the void. Demi held the microphone clasped to her chest, watching with excitement the antics of a friend made thousands of miles away. It felt a little strange to her, along with the other few members of their crew to see the dead world of Azura through her master's perspective, but this kind of limited surveillance was better than no surveillance at all.

Twenty minutes had elapsed since Rune had put his safety into the hands of the life support system. They were making good time and as long as Rune was able to make it onto the shuttlecraft towards the worldship before the hour was through he'd have plenty of oxygen left. Wren had stopped watching Rune flying through the air and had instead elected to focus on where he was walking, climbing down the steep hill towards the true entrance of Azura. The four protectors could only hear one exclamation from the esper now, a long as drawn out; "Yeeeehahahahaaw!"

On Azura Rune didn't know how long he could stay in the air, but right now it had been quite some time. Apart from how much fun this was he was also covering an impressive amount of ground. Three more leaps like these and he'd be more than halfway to his destination without even breaking a sweat. Rune descended, floating down effortlessly until his feet touched the ground, but then he kicked off again immediately afterward and was on his way. The second hop was small and tame compared to the first, but it was still enough.

_/ "Aw… that sounds like so much fun, I want to try it." / _Chaz laughed from Rune's radio, now a little jealous.

Sure this might be the fun part now, but maybe Chaz would want to change his mind once the serious stuff began. Rune also had to gather himself together and lay his focus back on the mission, or else he would be sending a bad impression to the people waiting for him back on the space station. The entranceway was easily visible to him now, just a very brisk walk away. Rune ended his flight for the last time and resumed walking slowly, captured by terra firma once more. After a minute Wren joined him in stride, catching up to him.

From what they could see so far the huge doors leading down into Azura were securely shut, locking out the lack of atmosphere and low gravity. On either side of the entranceway were two huge statues, as they got closer Rune judged that they must be about ten feet tall and they were angular, featureless. Hardly the work of a master craftsman, but they did look very sinister.

The two explorers halted a short distance away from the entrance. "So, how are we going to get in?" Rune asked casually, wishing that he could scratch his nose. Wren merely showed him the item that he had been keeping secret and safe so far, it was their trump card in getting through Azura and the worldship safely. Rune leant over and looked at the medallion in the large android's hand with faint recognition. He himself had never seen one of these things before, but one of his earlier incarnations had. "Hey… is that a Waizz Star? I didn't think those things even _existed_ anymore! How did you get one?"

_/ "What's a Waizz Star?" / _Raja asked curiously but someone on his side hushed him up gently, somebody that was most likely Demi.

Wren ignored the questions from both of them. His selective hearing was really beginning to get on Rune's nerves. "You will unlock the doors while I keep surveillance of the area. Take this." He palmed the small trinket into Rune's gauntleted hand. The android was sick of holding onto it and the star was basically a lie given physical form. The fact that it was powerful and daresay useful just made matters worse. Rune could hold onto it from now on. He already seemed to know how it worked.

Rune weighed the key in his hand, thinking about the offer. It would put him back in point position again and frankly Rune liked the idea of that. The things that he didn't like, however, were those stone statues. Something was not right about them. They served no purpose, so why were they there? "Alright, no sweat." He announced, turning purposefully and striding toward the doors. Wren backed him up, three paces behind.

When danger struck it was not Rune who had noticed it first, or Wren. The android had been inspecting the terrain to the left of the entranceway while keeping Rune and part of the facility in the corner of his field of vision. Fortunately, while the two explorers had failed to notice anything out of the ordinary they were not the only ones who had been keeping watch.

Back on Zelan Hahn Mahlay had caught the flicker of emerging red from the dull sockets of the statue on screen and had acted without hesitation. He ripped the small microphone from out of Raja's hands and screamed; _/ "Rune! Get down!" /_

Hahn's shout burst through his radio loudly and smacked Rune's ear as if it were a drum. The volume of the outcry had been so blaring and sudden that he couldn't make out of words precisely, but the general gist of the message was felt. A fraction of a second later a needle of pain darted through Rune's head like a laser, causing the magician to wince. He would have held his head if his helmet hadn't prevented him. All at once Rune sensed esper magic, and powerful stuff at that. God, it made his head sting.

_But how?_ He cried to himself as his legs went wobbly and he sunk to his knees. _Nobody's alive on this satellite! I'm sure of it!_

The two huge stone entities animated themselves as Rune and Wren entered their range of detection, eyes flashing and thick limbs the width of tree-trunks creeping into life. One of the statues groaned impossibly low, like the sound of a tuba, and then its twin joined in. When they moved all the weight and force of their two-ton bodies went with them, revealing the statues as crushing, killing machines. The statue closest to Rune lashed out at him with a jointless arm and missed, sailing over the esper's head as he sank to the ground. The monster clipped Wren instead and knocked the android onto his back, throwing his handheld cannon out of his reach.

_/ "What the hell are those things?" / _Chaz cried uselessly into the microphone as Demi let out a short, surprised squeak of _/ "Master!" / _as he was sent flying and they all heard the thud.

Now that Rune had some idea of what had happened and the brief pain had dissipated he rose, preparing to become the leader again. He kept his eyes on the two statues lumbering towards them like snails and snarled, a very un-Lutz like thing to do. "What the hell are golems doing on this moon?" He shouted, stepping back so he could get closer to Wren who was already showing signs of recovery. This wasn't good, but it certainly wasn't unexpected either. They had come prepared for a fight.

Their one lucky break was that the low gravity made it very difficult for the heavy creatures to move under their own power, magical or no. Golems were very much like machines, they did not think or tire and they followed orders explicitly, to the end of eternity if required. Unlike machines they could not be stopped unless their entire body was destroyed, crushed into fine powder or pebbles. Rune and Wren were not in the right position to do that right now, they were practically defenseless.

Wren rolled toward his weapon, grabbed it and fired while still lying on his stomach, his photon eraser cannon nearly disintegrating about half of one of the golem's arms, raised up into the air to strike Rune down. The esper saw an opportunity to get away again and leapt into the air, letting the weak gravitational field carry his body way over the monster's head. For a moment he thought that he wasn't going to make it, but then he used the golem's head as leverage, stepping down on it, and managed to get away.

"Unable to identify enemy. Retreat seems the most logical course of action." Wren said as he stood and switched his weapon to his proper hand. A golem came up at his side and rushed at him angrily, but Wren was able to sidestep in time and put himself between the monster and the door. He looked up at Rune who was also trying to float to the door as fast as he could. The floating thing had been fun five minutes ago. Now it was just a deadly nuisance. Wren thought over any strategies to buy them some time. His hyper-jammer wouldn't work on a being made of only magic and stone, burst rockets would not ignite unless oxygen was present in the atmosphere, and if he risked the positron bolt he stood a chance of destroying Rune and the entranceway along with the monsters.

"No shit, Wren!" Rune called furiously as he spun around and raised a hand to the creatures, dearly wishing that he could unleash fire or ice or _something_ to put the miserable constructs in their place. Instead all Rune could do was point that stupid space suit integrated gun at the monster and fire, hoping to deal some damage. His aim was terrible, missing completely and scorching the ground in front of the golems instead. "_Shit_!" Rune cried again as he accidentally dropped the Waizz Star, forgetting that he had been holding it in his gun-arm.

The android kept up a continuos volley of fire against the golem closest to him, attempting to draw it away from his friend so they would not get the chance to gang up on him. Wren watched Rune stupidly drop the star. Four voices on the radio shouted things at him, urging Rune to pick it up again. "We cannot unseal the door without that item! Retrieve it now!" He ordered, raising his usually monotonous voice. Wren shot out one of the legs of his golem but it still kept coming, forcing him up against the entranceway's wall.

He wasn't doing any damage. The gun was useless! Rune got down on one knee and tried to force the thought of an angry golem looming over him out of his mind, sifting his hands through the dirt and rocks to find the medallion he had lost. All manner of filthy words issued forth from his mouth as his thick gauntleted fingers couldn't get a proper grip on the star, try as he might it slipped away from him. At last Rune seized the item in his fist and looked up, his heart in his mouth, just as the monster's enormous limb came sweeping down upon him.

The impact was so terrible that he was amazed he didn't break anything, either his bones _or_ his space suit. Rune wheezed as all the wind was knocked from his lungs by the slow hit, but instead of just taking the blow Rune molded his body around the stone limb and clung to it, swung about in the air. His mind wasn't working on its own anymore but once the golem's arm reached the apex of its swing Rune suddenly had a clear path between himself and Wren, who was cornered up against the wall. "Catch!" The esper cried and hurled the Waizz Star in his friend's direction, trying to get the key closer to the lock.

Wren dove to the ground for two reasons, to snatch at the medallion that had come his way and to avoid being punched into the dirt by the one-legged golem stalking him, crushed like a tin can. Wren caught the item nimbly and turned to the mechanical lock on the entranceway, moving to deactivate it. This was a great turn of fortune, save for the magically enraged golem about to raise both its hands for a second, two-fisted strike.

Rune could see that if anybody was going to save the day it needed to be him, as these were magical monsters and magic was his field of expertise. Oh, if only there was some way to drain the magic from their bodies so they'd only be useless lumps of rock again…

Wait, that was it! He _could_ do that! Rune was banned from his offensive magic techniques but his supportive spells would work perfectly fine in his delicate space suit. Raising a fist and still clinging tightly to the arm of the golem about to shake him off, Rune shouted out; "Seals!" and then coughed, trying to get his wind back.

From his vantage point Rune watched Wren actually flinch as if he had expected to be destroyed, the golem virtually upon him, its fists two feet away from impact. The magician experienced the usual tugging sensation from his esperine aura as his spell was conjured into reality, complicated runic symbols materializing in the space around the monstrosity. The golem groaned again, flatly, as the symbols grew brighter and began to suck the magical energy out of it, draining the construct completely dry. The golem's glowing red eyes flashed alarmingly and then burnt out, all its impossibly heavy limbs freezing up and stopping, returning to inanimate stone.

The remaining golem wildly waved the arm that Rune was clinging to, trying its best to shake the blue-haired palman off. Rune made a bit of a groaning noise himself and pushed away, somehow landing on his feet but feeling thoroughly discombobulated. Wren swiped the underside of the Waizz Star over the scanner clock briskly and stepped back. He didn't know if the item would really work. It was possible, but not certain.

The door chimed a glorious ring of acceptance and slid open easily, allowing them entrance into another spacious airlock. Wren got inside quickly and turned back to the action, witnessing Rune stumbling toward him as quickly as he could while the other living golem still chased him, three strides behind. "Please hurry, Rune!" Wren called from the entrance and stepped in to hold the doors open with his hands after they had tried to close automatically. If Rune was locked outside with the other golem he'd probably be finished before he'd gathered up enough of his bearings to cast his seals spell again.

Rune's panic was clearly evident on his face. For every three slow steps that he took the golem's heavy footfalls were like the rumble of distant thunder right at his back. He could see Wren struggling to keep the hydraulic doors open and he ducked low as he burst through the threshold, diving beneath the android's arms. Rune skidded to a stop on his knees and Wren let go immediately, the golem bellowing in frustration and reaching out to them just as the gateway closed.

The esper remained on his knees for a few moments more, panting and gasping to get the air back into his lungs. He had been running on empty back there. Boy, it had been a close one! Wren waited for Rune to recover in silence, but Demi felt concerned for him and really needed to know if he was okay. She couldn't help it, she just had always just been like that. _/ "Rune, are you hurt? Will you be alright?" / _She asked.

"I'm fine. I just need a minute. Thanks Demi." Rune reassured the little voice on the radio and stood up, a hand over his rapidly beating heart. He exhaled deeply and examined Wren. They were lucky that they had both been able to keep their heads during a crisis. They might not get along so well together anymore but at least their combat coordination had stayed flawless. Rune smirked. "I'm glad that part's over wi-"

Azura's airlock rattled sharply as something incredibly large and heavy slammed into it. The metal made a deep booming sound like a low percussion instrument but remained intact. Rune's words died on his tongue and Wren defensively raised his cannon in the direction of the clamor, yet did not fire. It looked like the golem didn't want to call it quits so easily. "It may tire and give up on its own." Wren guessed as the doors rattled for the second time. Rune could only hope he was right.

They waited tensely for several moments as the poundings continued. Rune sat down on the floor with his hands in his lap. It seemed like the golem desperately wanted to get at them but was unwilling to tear the airlock of Azura apart to do so. It might make sense if Rune was correct about what they were. Soon the banging stopped and they were safe. Wren put his gun down. "Those were guardian golems." Rune stated gravely, thinking. "I don't know why somebody planted them here on this moon but they were definitely guarding something."

Wren appeared to wilt just a little. It was very strange to watch. "This will not be as simple as I thought." He said.

He was right.

†††

Whoever it was that had said curiosity killed the cat obviously had had Rika in mind. The hushed sound of soft toe shoes whispering down the empty corridors of Zelan was heard only by her long, pointed ears. Rika had excused herself earlier from the group and had left Chaz behind with them, the youth obviously enjoying the newfound company all over again. It had been a huge rush to see Rune, Raja, Demi and Wren after so long, a good rush, but Rika had not anticipated being plunged into an entirely new mission with very real risks. Two of her friends were gone now, whisked away to a cold desolate moon where Rune's life might even be at stake.

Rika needed to walk in order to clear her mind. She hadn't really wanted to see Rune squeezed into that old space suit and then blasted off towards the stars, but if it had not been Rune then it might have been Chaz, and she wouldn't be able to stand the worry. Things had changed a lot in three years. She could have watched Chaz fight and bleed and scream in pain three years ago as his friend and comrade, but Rika would be the first one in the worlds to admit that her heart and resolve had softened since then.

This girl that walked all alone did not wear armor, did not wield claws that rent like slashing blades. She wore long skirts and dresses with ribbons in her hair, and the last tool she had picked up that even _vaguely_ resembled a weapon had been a kitchen knife. In some very abstract way it was like the Rika that had defended Algo ferociously with her friends had created a younger sister and then had fallen into a deep sleep, her role as a warrior at an end. Maybe that was why she felt so alienated from her dear friends right now. They had not retired totally from protecting like she had.

Regardless if Rika was entirely who she used to be or not, Chaz still loved her in all her incarnations. It was liberating to see such devotion, such acceptance in those pretty green eyes of his. Chaz had grown from a boy into a man during the Great War and the years that proceeded it, there was still so much more of his future that Rika needed to see. She loved him back because of all that he had done for her, the smiles, the happy moments, and even some of the pain. It was impossible for a person to love somebody and not feel a little pain. Rika was feeling that now, hoping that nothing would happen to drag Chaz and her friends into danger.

Because the cold hard truth was that Rika didn't think she could help them anymore.

Sighing, the numan girl brushed some bright pink hair behind her ear. It would make things a lot earlier for her heart if she went back to the control room and carefully monitored the mission with the others, but she was not wandering through Zelan for no reason. This would probably be her only chance to walk freely around there without an escort for some time. Rika knew that Demi counted her a good friend, trusted her in just about anything, but if she were to walk about the space station all alone without a guide she might mess up something and cause a total disaster. This rule applied to all her palman and dezorian friends too, it seemed.

As mentioned before, Rika was quite a curious soul. It was something that Seed had initially implanted into her but she had developed the desire extensively of her own free will. She had seen Demi pause and hesitate in front of one of the closed doors along the path to the observation deck, just as Rune had seen at a later date not so long ago. The esper had written it off as something weird yet unimportant, but Rika had felt an urge to discover what it was that had made her friend appear so sad.

_When I saw her looking at that door it was almost as if she were looking over a grave…_ Rika told herself as she began to count down the numbers of each room. They were written on the corner of each door in what appeared to be calculator font, with a capital letter before each numerical value. This part of Zelan must have been a dormitory area a long time ago when there had been people living here, or it could have just been a vast amount of storage space. Sixty three, sixty two, sixty one…

Was it terrible of her to be poking around the space station and into other people's business when Rune or Wren could be in awful danger at that very moment? It was a little, she supposed, but no matter what Rika did she wouldn't be able to help them now. She probably couldn't help Demi either but she could at least gain some insight into why the android girl had looked so sad. It was like she was missing something, but what? Fifty five, fifty four, fifty three…

Rika suddenly realised that she didn't really know anything at all about the green-haired girl, other than what she was and what she did for a living. Demi was three and a quarter centuries old and that was a huge amount of time for history to pile up. She had never thought about it like that before. Her android friends, what had they been before they became what they were? Certainly they had been called into life for their jobs, hadn't they? Rika thought that maybe, with her catlike sixth sense twitching like a puffed-up tail in her mind, she might see something important if she shoved that closed door open and tried to understand it for herself. Forty two, forty one, forty…

Room thirty nine. This was the right one, she was sure of it. Block A, room thirty nine. Rika stepped up to it boldly and laid her hands upon the cool metal surface, about to pull the doors apart, but the mere touch was more than enough. They were fully automated and slid apart sneakily with a hiss like a conniving serpent. The girl backed away a step, looking up and down the hallway to see if anybody was watching her. She was sating her sense of curiosity but she also kind of knew that she was doing something wrong.

The numan girl did not know it and could not make a proper comparison, but the interior of room thirty nine was completely identical to that of the room Wren and Demi had visited right before their mission had begun. The door accessed a small area with a table, some chairs, and a body too.

Rika poked her head into the room, eyes widening as she mentally traced the decidedly palman shape left lying on the table. Unlike the broken android in block C this figure had been arranged neatly, carefully, like a body laid out for burial. She immediately realised that this small room was a crypt. Demi had not just been sad, it may have been deeper than that. She may have been mourning. A crypt on Zelan! What in Algo did _that_ mean?

She was determined to investigate further. Rika had already come so far that there was no sense in turning back now. Sheepishly the girl stepped into the room, hearing the hydraulic doors clamp shut close behind her. The lights grew brighter, compensating for the illumination lost coming from the hallway. Block A had been kept in rather good condition when compared to the other storage areas. This was where Wren and Demi usually came whenever they needed spare parts. But not room thirty nine. _Never_ room thirty nine.

There was a girl lying on the hard metal table, hands clasped to her breast in a praying gesture and legs firmly together. She was the most beautiful girl that Rika had ever seen! Approaching reverently she put her hands on the steel table and leant over, inspecting the mystery that she had found. The girl was scantily clad in a red and white outfit that did little to conceal the natural curves of her body and her hair was a deep, vibrant shade of crimson, the colour of a rose. Her chest did not rise and fall with breathing. Was it true that she was really dead?

Her body was soft and pliant as Rika touched her, carefully pressing her fingers to the girl's neck as she searched for a pulse. There was absolutely nothing for her to feel, no response at all, and the body was alarmingly cold. Rika simply could not figure out how a dead girl's body could have turned up in such an isolated location. It was a shame that she was dead, she would have been so pretty, even _more_ beautiful in life. Demi must have known this girl at some point in her life, that was probably why she was here.

But wait, her revealing outfit was not the only thing that she had been wearing, the red-haired girl also seemed to be wearing a paper tag around one wrist, held there by a length of string. Rika recognised it as a death tag, placed upon corpses for identification purposes. There was also a thick metal choker around the base of her neck, clasping tightly like a collar with visible circuitry all around it, as if it were a graphic design. Rika raised her crooked index finger to her mouth and bit down lightly as she pondered. She thought that she might have seen that collar before at one point during her studies in the Bio-Plant.

She focussed on the tag first, as that was something she could easily understand. Rika gently took the dead girl's hand and lifted it away from her body, extending the arm so that she would be able to read the tag dangling from her wrist. The first thing Rika saw as she held the tag between two of her fingers was that it was written in Wren's handwriting. As dull and as precise as Wren was Rika knew that he was a rather sloppy writer. It had something to do with how big his fingers were and how small the pen was, but that was not the point. Wren would _had_ to have known about this lost dead girl.

The second thing that Rika saw was the text itself. It clarified a lot of things, and was able to jump start her memory enough to know what that weird collar was all about.

_MIEU class android  
'MieuS'  
No number  
Currently suppressed._

If this tag was correct then this red-haired girl was the most lifelike android that Rika had ever seen. Not an inch of her body appeared to give away the secret that she was anything other than palman. Heck, Rika brushed some of her long hair away, even her ears looked completely real. Whoever had made her had obviously put a lot of effort into it. Rika placed the girl's hand back onto her chest, now scrutinizing the fingerless reinforced gloves that she wore. They were definitely claw gauntlets, and expertly made too.

This android girl, Mieus, if that was really her name, definitely had the correct body shape and muscle distribution to be a skilled twin-claw user. Rika had come to the space station Zelan completely unarmed and she had regretted it, so would it really be a bad thing if she took the weapons off this girl and used them for the greater good if necessary?

But Rika had forgotten the most important thing of all. She had officially retired from the world of fighting. Her own guardian claw and silver tusk were hanging up on the wall at her home in Aiedo, and there they would always stay. Picking up a weapon now would mean turning her back to all that she and Chaz had worked for in the past three years. It was too much to risk, and far too much to lose.

As for the collar though, Rika had just now remembered what it was. If this girl was an android then she was not broken or damaged in any way, but the tight metal choker would contain a small hyper jammer device feeding out a low frequency vibration that was impossible to detect through hearing alone. If what Rika suspected was true then Mieus' AI was being kept in a deep unending sleep for reasons unknown to her. The slave collar, as it was more commonly known, had been a useful tool in capturing and bringing back crazed machinery during all of Algo's most dangerous wars. Rika had learned this through her study of history with Seed.

Rika was not hesitant anymore. Obviously this girl could not hurt her and she was safe for now. It seemed ludicrous that such a sweet and innocent looking face would be endowed with an ability that Rika once had, the ability to kill easily and swiftly with merely the sweep of an arm. She fancied that maybe she herself had looked that untouchably innocent once, before her darling Chaz had taken her by the hand and had led her out into the world. If anything, Rika wanted to know the reason why this girl had been left here like a sleeping beauty, waiting for a prince to come and awaken her.

She couldn't ask Demi about her, that would give away the fact that she had been poking about in here. One thing that Rika really didn't want to do was break the android girl's trust in her. Demi had been sad as she looked at the crypt of her old friend, maybe. That would make a whole lot of sense out of things. Still, Rika needed to hear the explanation from Mieus' own lips.

If curiosity killed the cat, then Rika was walking on very hot coals indeed. Once she undid the clasp of the collar around the girl's neck the jamming frequency should cut out, breaking the circuit. As long as Mieus was perfectly functional she might come back to life again. If not, well, then Rika would just have to give up on her search and go back to the others. She wouldn't gain anything but she wouldn't lose anything either. Rika reached for the android girl's neck.

When she touched the thick metal slave collar she found it humming softly under her fingertips, the feeling quite gentle and pleasant. The catch to open the contraption was a little seam on the left side of her neck, magnetized slightly to keep the lock closed. Rika applied force to the collar and it snapped open, the calming hum switching off almost immediately. She was leaning over the girl in what felt like a vulnerable position, looking through streams of her bright pink hair that had gotten into her face, waiting to see what would happen next. The tips of her fingers were practically tingling with excitement.

Several heavily expectant moments flew past where nothing happened, the time dedicated to bringing all of Mieus' systems back to partial life. It was like raising the dead and it was totally amazing to witness. Then, finally, the girl's eyes opened for the first time in many years. They were a deep, oceanic blue, like the colour of the darkest sea or the heart of a glacier. They were beautiful eyes but very cold, and now in the first seconds of life again they looked confused and afraid.

Mieus convulsed momentarily and tried to sit up while Rika was still leaning over her. The numan girl didn't want to let go of the open slave collar around her neck in case she suddenly needed to close it again. The red-haired android came up until her face was only inches away from Rika's, her cold breast pressed against Rika's warm one. Her mouth opened into a little 'o' shape, testing to see if it still worked right, and them Mieus' arms slowly raised themselves from the table, like she was about to embrace the person that had awoken her.

"Help me please…" Mieus whispered softly into the air.

In the end it was Rika's nervousness and quick reflexes that ultimately saved her life. She had been jumpy before as she leaned over this complete stranger and the very moment that she heard the familiar 'click' coming from either sides of her body she immediately let go and pulled away. Rika had heard that noise thousands of times before. It was the sound that her own hands had once made right before a battle, the click coming half a second before the light scraping sound of metal, claws sliding out of gloves that had once been restricted.

One of those claw blades whizzed by her face as Rika threw her weight onto her heels, while the other tore easily into the fabric of her dress at the shoulder, thankfully missing her skin. Rocking backward Rika steadied herself and watched Mieus stare at the place where Rika had been, not comprehending that the girl wasn't there anymore. The android shrieked in frustration, a howl sounding like broken glass, and while the girl seemed as distracted as she would ever be Rika darted around the table and grabbed Mieus from behind.

She clamped down hard on Mieus' shoulder to prevent the girl from turning around and snapped the slave collar back into its proper place, completing the circle. The hyper-jamming frequency wasn't instantaneous however and its AI scrambling abilities came down upon Mieus gradually, similar to a chemical sedative. Rika had to hold her with all the strength she could muster from her arms as Mieus thrashed about like a teenager throwing a tantrum, screaming mindlessly, blankly, as if there was nothing she could do left.

After five or six seconds Rika could feel the strength and resistance leaving Mieus' body, and the siren-like screams had died down into sad, persistant cries. Rika's heart almost went out to the girl as she heard and felt her struggling, but then she reminded herself that there didn't seem to be anything left in this girl's mind at all. It was a shame. She had wanted to know the reason why Mieus was here and why Demi seemed to care for her, but there would be no more answers here.

She was wrong. As the girl's eyelids fluttered helplessly back into sleep and her cleverly-hidden artificial body fell back against Rika's strong chest, Mieus cried out one last coherent word, like a plea. It was only one word and Rika did not grasp the full meaning of it, rather, Rika had barely heard it in the first place. That was too bad, as it answered all the questions that she had and was a greater clue than any of the others she had seen beforehand.

"Mother…" Mieus had said, hoarsely, before deactivating into nothingness all over again.


	8. The Ghost in the Machine

Azura's spaceport was not at all like the spaceports near Tyler and Kadary, it contained one fundamental difference that Rune and Wren immediately saw as they stepped through the airlock and into the facility.

It was a place of silenced industry, of bits and pieces of machinery lying unkempt all over the place, of toxic spillage upon the floor and mammoth production devices locked down in what seemed like a millennia of sleep. Rune looked about in intrigue, as it reminded him of the machine center back on Dezoris, only deader and quieter. The spaceport was huge, about the size of a giant warehouse, but this must just be the anteroom before they got to the place where the space shuttles were stored. He hoped that they'd still be able to find it amidst all the jumble.

Standing behind Rune Wren surveyed the scene as well, and so did all the party members back on Zelan, thankfully quiet now. After the brief skirmish with the golems they were willing to leave the explorers alone. Wren felt a very weak sensation of disgust as he stepped inside the spaceport, similar to what Rune might have felt if he had stepped inside an abattoir. There were fragments of broken androids everywhere, and they weren't just dismantled peacefully, they had all been hacked to pieces by what looked like blade cuts. It was as if a battle had been fought here once, a long time ago.

But it seemed like the majority of the battle had been fought on the outskirts of the spaceport, as the scene of carnage progressively appeared to clean itself up as the explorers wandered a little ways into the center of the facility. Rune wasn't an expert on tactics but the concentration of broken androids seemed to suggest that they had been defending the station, trying to keep something dangerous _outside_ and being overrun. There was a possibility that it could have been the two golems, but that only made a tiny amount of sense. Golems couldn't be commanded without a master, and that master must have had a _hell_ of a lot of magic inside them.

"It feels like we're standing on the very edge of another mystery, don't you think?" Rune asked Wren as he knelt, inspecting a dried patch of fluid on the floor. It wasn't oil or cooling liquid, or whatever, it was coagulated blood. Palman blood. It was so old that it was barely even there anymore, but Rune touched it with a hand and closed his eyes, focussing and concentrating, trying to see. He could feel it, trailing up his fingers like the touch of a ghostly feather, a speck of the essence that he had sensed within the two golems. This was split esper blood, he was sure of it.

Wren wasn't really listening to Rune, he was analyzing the atmosphere instead. The fact that the inside of Azura even seemed to have an atmosphere at all was very interesting to him, and it kept his attention away from the mechanical corpses all around him. "Analysis of atmosphere complete. The air within the Azura spaceport is suitable for palman consumption. Rune, I advise that you deactivate your oxygen supply and make use of the resources all around you." It would give his friend a lot more time and breathing space once they were on the Alisa Three and back again. It always helped to be safe.

The esper rose from where he was kneeling and looked down at his hand, his fingertips still tingling from where he had touched that blood. He heard Wren's words and glanced up at his comrade, smiling in relief. "So you're saying I don't have to wear this fish-bowl anymore? Thank the Light for that." Rune reached up and removed his plexiglas helmet from his head, doing that before he reached down on his wrist and switched off his oxygen supply. He took a deep breath from his nose and mouth, glad to be breathing free unrestricted air once more.

"Augh!" Rune recoiled as if he had been punched in the stomach, stepping back while he held his nose and his mouth. His eyes watered a bit too. "Why didn't you warn me about the smell?" The esper moaned wretchedly, scolding Wren. The air was breathable, but god, Rune definitely preferred the bottled variety. The overpowering fumes of petroleum hung through the air almost like a physical presence, thickening it, while there was also a deeply burnt smell, an acidic scent that put the stench of petroleum on a pedestal and worshipped it like a god. Rune swore that he could actually _feel_ some of his brain cells beginning to die.

"Just put up with it. It is imperative that we find the correct entranceway to the spaceport." Wren said blandly and then stepped around a felled balduel machine, its green paneling bubbled and melted by what Rune could have guessed was a nafoi spell. It was very strange that Wren didn't seem to have any interest in the obvious battlefield they were standing in the middle of. The curiosity was eating Rune up inside, just as the acidic fumes were designing a headache within his skull.

As Wren seemed to be taking an easterly direction to finding the spaceport area Rune decided to branch off and explore the area to the west. It seemed pretty clear over there and there weren't as many bodies, so he hoped that the fumes would be lessened as well. He was mistaken, but that was no matter. Rune checked to see if his radio was still working. Even if Wren went out of sight he'd be able to converse with him that way. "What do you think happened here?" He asked, speaking with some level of hushed reverence for the damage done all around them.

"It seems that a small platoon of highly trained soldiers breached the entranceway and laid waste to the occupants of this facility. The defenders resisted for a short amount of time but they were hastily overpowered." Rune heard a sizeable crash as something hard and metallic hit the floor. Wren might have been doing some salvaging, or maybe he needed to clear away some bits and pieces to progress further.

Having his helmet off was a blessing and a half to the Lutz, but it was also kind of annoying to carry around under one arm. "What makes you say that?" Rune questioned as he finally came to a doorway, but it was smashed in and ruined, leading into a small storage room that looked like a closet.

The radio crackled a little as Wren replied. It hadn't been doing that as badly as before. Rune hoped that the damn thing wasn't breaking down on him. "Because the occupants of this facility did not have adequate time to create reinforcements." Wren announced from his side of the area, dwarfed by and looking up at a robot production machine. Half-made premature robots were left lying derelict on the warped conveyor belt and piles of the destroyed devices were heaped at the end. No reinforcements, no salvation. Wren didn't care. This was not what he had been sent here for.

Rune's headache, which had started as a painful sting at his right temple had crept all the way across the front of his brow. They had been searching for roughly fifteen minutes now and they had yet to find the doorway they were looking for. The esper _had_ found a box with a telepipe inside it, but it was more than useless to him now. "I think espers might have attacked this spaceport. It explains how they overpowered these machines and why they left golems outside to keep people away from this place. I don't know _why_ espers would attack a spaceport, but hey, the pieces kind of fit together. What do you reckon?"

He got only silence from his friend. Rune continued to hug the walls in his search to find something, _anything_ that would lead them further into their quest. Some stairs would be nice. A large doorway would be even better. He kept up his talking in order to keep the radio online and to dispel the irrational fear that he was all alone on this satellite. "By the way, you never told me where you got that Waizz Star from. You must have done something pretty damn spectacular during the Collapse Wars in order to earn one."

More silence. It was unnerving. Rune started to wonder if maybe his radio might have broken down when Wren at last replied to him, coldly. "I did not earn it. Have you any success on your side of the spaceport? Should I come and search for myself?" Rune didn't take kindly to people who doubted his ability to get things done right. He scowled, growing quiet himself.

Both of them had actually done a rather thorough search of the area. It was through no fault of their own that they were beginning to feel disheartened. Rune and Wren met again at the very back of the facility, empty-handed. Wherever the path to the space shuttles were they certainly couldn't find it. Hanging around an ancient battlefield with half the bodies still present didn't help their spirits much either. It kind of bugged Rune that while all the android and robot causalities had been left as they were, any esper causalities, and he was certain there would have been some, were gone. All that Rune had found was a couple of patches of esper blood.

If they couldn't continue then they would just have to go back the way they came. That was absolutely out of the question for Wren. He would not give up until his mission was complete. However, Rune was beginning to look a little impatient and perplexed, and not at all well. They must have overlooked something previously. All they could do was go back to the beginning of the spaceport and start over again.

They were standing in front of another large machine. It wasn't as big as some of the robot production devices they had walked past, but there was something overly sinister about it. For one it had been splashed with dried esper blood in a startling arc, now dried into a drab one-colour rainbow. Another thing was that Rune could have sworn he had seen a machine similar to this one before, but the design was just so slightly different that he couldn't quite remember where. As Rune turned to the machine while Wren calculated the possibility that they might have missed something, the Reverent Fifth noticed one last thing, the most important thing.

"There's somebody alive in there." He said seriously as he pressed a gauntleted hand against the surface of the device. Rune had originally thought that Azura was a dead world and no living thing had been left alive above and below its surface, but he had been wrong. The machine had been covering up the life signature that he now felt, as well as preserving it through the ages. Yes, Rune was beginning to get a very slow grasp on the mystery. At the back of the spaceport Azura lay hidden an impressive cryochamber, and within it lurked the aura of a sleeping esper.

"Are you certain?" Wren asked his friend, but Rune seemed to have spaced out a little as he leant his forehead against the surface of the cryochamber, trying to see with his mind and not with his eyes. He hoped that the fumes weren't getting to him and messing with his head, making him sense things that weren't there. But Rune was fairly certain of this sensation, pretty much so.

It felt surreal to be standing on the outside of a cryochamber and trying to look in. For so long throughout Rune's incarnations it had always been the other way around. He stepped back, then crept around the machine searching for other clues, hypothesizing as he went along. "This must be what the robots in this spaceport were protecting so ferociously when the espers attacked. Maybe the robots had kidnapped an esper leader somehow and they were trying to get him back, or maybe the bots took this place as their base and they were trying to reclaim it…"

"You make it sound as though you believe all machines are capable of is sinister planning and ill will toward palmans." Wren observed blandly as he took a good look at the exterior control panel of the cryochamber, rather simply designed but still quite old. He didn't really care what Rune thought but perhaps even Wren still had a shred of racial dignity left in him somewhere.

"Oh, sorry. I didn't meant for it to sound that way. Oof!" Rune apologized gladly but gasped a second afterward as one foot of his slid down and got stuck within a strange and uneven patch of flooring. His head came forward and he hit the surface of the machine with his brow, feeling the nasty sting. If he had been wearing his helmet at the time he probably would have broken it, and _that_ would have been a huge life-threatening problem to contend with. "Fucking Noah…" He groaned angrily, taking the name of his first incarnation in vain.

Rune looked down to see what had caused him to lose his balance in the first place. He pulled his foot out of the small triangular hole in the floor with a little ankle manipulation and saw that the hole was intentionally made. It wasn't just a depression in the floor, it was part of a descending staircase leading to a level below the one they were on. Somebody had planted this enormous cryochamber _on top of_ the path to the space shuttles in order to keep people out! "Wren, come look at this!" Rune called and moments later the android was right beside him, seeing what Rune now saw.

It was a rather ingenious concealment now that Rune thought about it. They weren't going to be picking up and looking under every enormous pile of bolts that they came across, and it was only through Rune's esper senses and moment of clumsiness that they had found the way ahead. Wren was studying the cryochamber silently, judging whether he had the ability to budge it or not. "I do not think I possess the adequate strength to move this device." He concluded without even giving it a try.

Perhaps he was right. The cryochamber looked like it weighed several tons at the least. Rune could picture a small group of robed espers, some wounded, animating the two golems ripped from the blue stones outside and ordering them to place this cryochamber over the exit like a lead-lined casket. Wren was strong, but not _that_ strong. "Come on, lets at least give it a shot. I'll help too, what do we have to lose?" The Lutz pressed, offering himself up as a plough mule if he needed to.

Wren gave in and did as he was told, bracing his legs at the correct position and taking hold of the side of the machine in order to maximize the effectiveness of his force. Rune did the same thing beside him, but it was laughable to think that the blue-haired physically weak palman would be able to make a difference. If Rune wanted to think that he was, then that was fine, but mathematically speaking they would not have any success.

The esper and the android pushed and pushed for several strenuous, difficult minutes, but they were not able to shift the cryochamber even an inch. It was like the blasted thing had been glued to the floor. Rune leant against the machine for a moment to get his energy back, then Wren spoke, having an idea himself that might make things a little easier. "We should awaken the person lying dormant within the cryogenic chamber. They maybe be able to help with the moving of this obstacle, and if not then their absence would lessen the weight within the obstacle in the first place."

It made sense to Rune but it wasn't exactly the right thing to do either. He knew that he'd hate it if somebody woke him up from a deep sleep only to make him shove heavy roadblocks around. "We don't know the reason why that guy or girl is frozen in there. What if we're not supposed to wake them up? What if we wake them up and can't get them back to sleep again? We'd have a problem with an extra person in our party and only one space suit to go around."

They were all good reasons Rune had, but mostly he felt a little threatened by the thought of a new person in their party, and an esper to boot. He was comfortable with the group of friends that he had and they had saved the worlds together, had become something of a family. But Rune guessed that it was stupid not to have change, to resist change, as that was their entire world right now. The esper gave in without Wren having to say another word. He just hoped that they weren't making a big mistake. "Well, we're not getting anywhere as we are. Let's crack this sucker open."

For once Rune actually had a better grasp and understanding of how to operate a cryochamber than Wren did. He could have broken it open all by himself, but instead he elected to stay around the corner of the device and think of another way to move the huge thing. He didn't want to see the frozen esper jump out of the machine like a jack-in-the-box, it would bring back too many nasty memories of being frozen himself. This was Wren's idea, he could assist in the thawing-out process in his place.

Wren went to the control panel and issued a systems interrupt, ordering immediate cessation of treatment to the patient. A rectangular hatch in the side of the cryochamber opened quietly and a long sheet of thick metal extended from the bottom of the opening, like the surface of an operating table. Then wisps of frozen air wafted through the opening like little curls of smoke. They were pretty to look at. The cryochamber asked one last time whether Wren was absolutely sure that he wanted to continue with the operation, as if the machine knew something that Wren did not.

A part of Wren also told him that what he was doing was an extremely bad idea. It was the same part of the android that had sensed the call just as Rune and Myau had, but the rational part of him had denied its existence. That was why he didn't listen to it now, was why he stepped over the boundary and doomed thousands of people to a horrible fate. It was why Wren had just signed his own death warrant away.

He turned off the power and the sleeping ghost within the machine was revealed to the world.

It wasn't an esper. Rune had been wrong about that. The cryochamber ejected the body onto the metal platform and Wren suddenly found himself looking into a mirror, one that reflected the past. Lying on the table was a Wren-type far older than he had ever seen before, primitive but not badly made, comatose and preserved in cryogenic perfection. It was as tall and as broad as Wren was, but instead of jet black hair its colour was a fiery red. He had seen more modernized versions of this machine on Kuran.

The Silent Wren. The Siren.

The android stood there, watching quietly as the effects of cryostasis began to wear off the other machine. This Siren was a thousand years old at the very least and a hand-made model by the looks of it, not something that had fallen off Mother Brain's production line. It jerked itself awake and sat up groggily, yet there was something of a restrained militaristic snap even in the way that it woke itself up. The Siren opened its eyes, light cloudy grey as predicted, and looked over at the first person it had seen in just under ten centuries. "Identify yourself." It said in a voice that was identical to Wren's own.

Wren replied just as dully to the question that had been directed at him, lowering the gun that he had risen in pre-emptive self defense. It was common for androids to become irrational and attack allied units after being inactive for such a long time. He had only been taking precautions. "I am Wren-type Forren one thousand and eighty three of the control satellite Zelan. I mean you no harm. I ask for your identity also." He said, relaxing his guard. Wren was glad that their guest had turned out to be an android, he felt that he could handle them much better than an esper, especially when espers and androids seemed to have fought here previously.

The Siren twisted its body a little and sat on the very edge of the metal platform, eerily similar to the dead android back on Zelan that had been the keeper of the Waizz Star. "I am Wren-type Siren, no number, of the order of Sa Ruik and servant to Lord Orakio, slayer of Layan scum. I mean you no harm either, Forren of Zelan. Who is your master? Are you a follower of Orakio as I am?" Siren asked in a blank, dead voice, like somebody deeply devoted to their own beliefs. He certainly had a very impressive resume. Wren had no idea what he was talking about.

Around the corner Rune was listening to their conversation through his radio, adjusting his helmet back on his head. He didn't care that he had to use up a bit more of his oxygen supply than he was supposed to, he simply couldn't take the awful smell of the Azura spaceport any longer. Over the radio it sort of sounded like Wren was holding a conversation with himself, that was how similar they sounded to one another. The magician was more confused than ever, that was why he didn't come out of hiding and greet this new acquaintance. It talked and sounded like an android, but its aura was that of an esper. What the hell?

"I do not know of this Orakio that you speak of, but I serve the Algo star system as its sole caretaker. I have no master. Siren, what are you doing on this satellite and what is the nature of this battlefield all around us?" Wren pressed softly, a mere identification turning into something of an interrogation. Siren did not look perturbed by the questions at all, and Wren also wanted to ask why this android did not have a number. Nearly all androids had a number, and this Siren preferred to talk like people from the feudal societies of old.

The red-haired machine smiled smugly, gripping the edges of the platform with his hands. He saw nothing wrong with telling this Forren-type the truth. "I was banished here for crimes against the filthy Layan people, may they burn in everlasting hell. When my master Orakio was lost to the darkness I continued his mission as his humble substitute. Agents of Kay Eshyr and Le Cille banished me to this distant moon but my convictions and ideals still remain strong. I will have my vengeance against them now that I am alive again. The spilt blood of Sa Ruik cries out for it." Siren smiled cruelly, showing teeth. "Thank you for awakening me, servant of Algo. How may I repay this service?"

Wren helped Siren off the table and steadied him on his feet, the ancient android still wired to a dangerous-looking gun that Wren could not successfully identify. He would have preferred it if Siren was unarmed, just in case. He was still smiling that self-assured smile of his when Wren answered. "Presently my companion Rune and I are seeking to board and reconfigure the auto pilot of the Alisa Three. We have been halted here due to your cryostasis chamber blocking the exit. If you could assist us in shifting this obstacle we would be very obliged."

"I wasn't expecting such a modest request. Of course I will help you. It is likely that Kay Eshyr set this obstacle in the first place. Layans make it their business to be as difficult as possible." Siren explained with confidence. Wren didn't know who or what Layans were, but this old android must have been very vindictive of them for a reason. They were fortunate that Siren was willing to help.

Rune stepped out from around the corner of the large cryochamber after fixing up his helmet and oxygen supply, seeing the other wren-type for the first time. To him they were virtually identical in size and shape, but one looked more sinister than the other. One seemed darker in spirit than the other, and Rune did not feel very safe. Despite his internal feelings Rune smiled cheerfully as the two wrens walked towards him and waved a hand in greeting. "Well, three pairs of hands are better than two. Hi, my name is Rune and-"

Before Rune could even finish his sentence there was a series of clicks and hisses and Siren already had his handheld cannon at the ready. He wasn't smiling anymore and looked as any Wren did at the beginning of a fight. The very moment that the red-haired machine saw Rune the Lutz was in terrible danger. He was so surprised that he didn't even raise his hands. He hadn't been expecting this. "Filthy Layan…" Siren said coldly, checking his aim. "Filthy Layan…"

"What?" Rune said, confused and more than a little nervous at having a gun trained at him, especially one as big as the one Siren was carrying. "I'm not a Layan. I'm an esper. I don't even know what a Layan is!"

Wren got the gist of the situation pretty quickly and drew his own gun on the wren-type standing beside him, taking a couple of steps back to place some distance between them. He didn't know how powerful Siren's weapon was but he was quite certain that his photon eraser would be stronger. Why would he suddenly classify Rune as an enemy? It didn't make sense. "Drop your weapon. I have you in my sights. You will not harm Rune. He has no affiliation with the people who banished you here."

"Even after a thousand years Layans still swarm over these worlds like cockroaches. I will not have it. You will die, spawn of darkness!" Siren announced, taking aim and firing at Rune's chest. The esper would not have been able to dodge the shot even if he had seen it coming, but Wren kept his word and lashed out at Rune's attacker, grabbing Siren and forcing him off balance just as he depressed the trigger.

The shot flew high and missed Rune by several feet. He watched the two androids collide into the side of the cryochamber and then to the floor, Wren pinning Siren down for several moments before he managed to twist in his grip and throw Wren off with a rough shove, reaching for his weapon again. Wren planted his hand down over the weapon before Siren could lift and use it however, though it was still wired into his arm. The two androids were wrestling very heatedly but they weren't actively trying to hurt each other, Siren was only trying to get to Rune and Wren was trying to keep that from happening if possible. He may have been acting coldly to Rune recently, but he was glad that Wren was willing to do that.

But Rune didn't have many options left himself. He couldn't fight properly as he was and there was nowhere left for him to run, except back the way he had came and into the remaining golem they had left outside. He watched as Wren disarmed Siren by snatching at his gun and ripping the connection wires out of the ports in his body, tossing the empty weapon a couple of meters away. "Enough!" Wren shouted as he pulled Siren to his feet and kept him in an efficient stranglehold, forcing him still. "Rune does not pose a threat to you! Stop this at once!"

"I see how it is…" Siren replied softly, craftily, looking as if he was coming to a profound conclusion. "The Layan scum has even managed to delude poor misguided Orakian servants into their ranks. There is no end to my pity for you, Forren. Now I must remove your allied status and classify you as an enemy target as well." Immediately after he finished speaking Siren tapped into a store of strength that Wren had yet to experience and pulled himself out of the dark-haired machine's grasp, drawing back and striking him in the chin so hard with his fist that Wren went crashing to the ground.

The android was not knocked out, but it took several crucial moments for him to recover and in that time Siren was headed for Rune. The esper took several steps away from the approaching menace, his face as dark as the night sky. Rune was starting to get pissed off. He was the fifth incarnation of Lutz, some bucket of bolts that had come out of the freezer didn't scare him at all! "Damn it, how dare you hurt my friend! I'm gonna make you eat fire!" He cried, raising his hand in preparation to cast a spell. The correct magic word was already forming on his tongue, something fiery…

"_Rune_!" Wren yelled and that was enough to force the magician to remember what he had forgotten. If he cast magic in his space suit he ran the risk of setting _himself_ on fire. But it was too late now, Rune had already started the spell.

He jerked his hand away at the very moment he cried out "Flaeli!" like a rising bubble in his throat. It totally ruined his aim but by a sheer miracle the spell ignited an inch or three away from his fingertips. Rune could feel the heat of the spell but a cold fear gripped the pit of his stomach, only unclenching when he took control and hurled the esper spell in Siren's general direction. Great Light, that had been close, but in the seconds after the spell was cast Rune decided that it had been worth it.

Even though the spell missed it still seemed to be worth it. Siren leapt away from the deadly volley of fire like one trained to avoid bomb blasts with ease and landed in a crouch, just as Wren was getting back onto his feet. The enemy android appeared slightly shaken, but in such a way that seemed to suggest he was enjoying himself. That arrogant smirk was back, and Rune knew that only _he_ was supposed to wear it. That devil. "You _are_ a Layan." Siren said with civil admiration as he stood again. "I was not one hundred percent certain until now. I will fight you on your own terms, Layan."

Rune felt the wrongness impression spike in his head as Siren raised a hand in the same way that Rune had just done, using the very same gesture. The spike, that sixth sensation he felt when he had pressed his brow against that cryochamber came back to him again, like a tide. In training, in the esper mansion that hand and gesture had been raised to him and…

"Flaeli!"

Sometimes Rune didn't believe in taking chances. He let his body and his instincts do the deciding for him while his mind was gawking and trying to understand what was going on. Rune made himself scarce and dove behind some trashed machinery just as a second flaeli spell was ignited and sent hurtling right at him, exploding and mightily scorching the ground where he had once stood. It was not as powerful as Rune's spells, but it _was_ an esper spell and it had come straight from the hands of Siren.

It didn't make any sense. Rune didn't understand it as he hid behind the mound of twisted metal and panted, his strength and stamina drained by the weight of his space suit. He was sweating heavily, strands of light blue hair loose from his ponytail pasted to the side of his neck. He heard Wren say through the luxury of his radio; "On your knees." Then there was a brief scuffle, the friendly wren-type probably trying to hold Siren back again. Everything had gone pear-shaped so suddenly, Rune's head was throbbing something fierce, and things had stopped making sense.

An android with magic? It was impossible.

They had reached the end of their tether. This mission thing just wasn't going to work. Screw the Alisa Three and screw Azura, Rune had had enough. He came out from hiding and saw that Wren had been able to clout Siren over the head with the butt of his photon eraser, sending the red-haired android to one knee on the floor. Wren looked like he hadn't really wanted to do it, but he had been forced to anyway. "We have to get out of here." The esper said gravely, a little weak in the knees at having that flaeli spell thrown at him. "Let's retreat."

Wren could see the merit in Rune's suggestion. He had been dedicated to sending the Alisa Three back on course out of the Algo system but he needed to draw the line somewhere. Continuing as they were with Rune in his deteriorating condition and this other wren-type antagonizing them significantly increased their chances of mission failure. It would be foolish to risk the life of the Lutz over something they could attempt again at a later date. "I agree with you, but we must first relegate this Siren to his cryogenic sleep. I will incapacitate him and together we will place him back into the machine."

It was rude for Rune and Wren to talk over Siren's head like that while he was still very much awake and listening to them. The blow to the back of his head had really hurt and disoriented him for a bit, paired with the lingering disorientating effects of his cryogenic sleep. Siren had only really been working at forty percent capacity so far and he was still coming to terms with the idea that he was alive again. He wasn't going to let that filthy Layan scum and traitorous Layan sympathizer put him back into the cold freezer yet again.

"You will do no such thing." Siren intoned powerfully as he rose up from the floor. His gun had been ripped from his arms and he was weaponless in that respect, but it did not matter very much. He was armed in a myriad of other different ways instead. There was something almost regal in his voice, almost royal, and it appeared that Rune had finally found his match in arrogance, righteousness and ego. "If Layans still exist upon the worlds then the Great Light must have awoken me to eradicate them! This machine that has kept me in living death…"

Siren threw his arm out in the direction of the machine while still keeping his cool grey eyes directly on Rune, as if he was trying to kill Rune's layan soul with his very hatred itself. A bright flash came from the android's open hand and an incandescent beam flared into life, knifing through part of the cryogenic chamber like a laser. The magician had seen one of those special techniques before, though it was not something he was personally capable of doing. Black smoke rose from the device as Siren lowered his arm slowly, the githu technique cast. "…it is no more." He said at last.

The idea that Siren was actually a real threat was finally starting to get through to Rune. He took two steps back and pointed at the red-haired machine accusingly. "Shit. Spark him Wren, while you can!" He ordered, wishing that he could administer something like a tandle himself without hurting his friend. Siren's strange abilities were interesting to Rune but he'd rather see the android deactivated on the ground than try to study his violent mannerisms some more.

Acting silently, Wren gathered enough energy in his spare hand to create an intentional electricity surplus, intending on forcing it through Siren's body on contact and overload all of his internal systems in one fell swoop. Wren could hold on to the spark for just under ten seconds before containing the electricity became too dangerous and he would have to abort the skill. Small arcs of playful leaping green lightning came off his metal-plated hand as he reached out for Siren, moving to grab his shoulder from behind.

However, Siren was not so stupid as to misunderstand what a spark was and he pulled himself away quickly, adding space between himself and Wren. Before he could claim his balance again he flinched as a small twin laser burnt the outer layer of his armor, hardly damaging it but still leaving a mark. Rune smiled morbidly as he realised he had actually _hit_ something with his gun for once. He couldn't hurt the android but he could at least cause a distraction. He seemed to be Siren's main target anyway. "Over here!" Rune cried as he charged forward and tackled his enemy, throwing all of his weight into the attack.

The esper wasn't a heavy man but the considerable weight of his space suit was enough to knock Siren over. The attack surprised him but only after a second his hands came up to reach for Rune's neck. Rune reared back to add precious space between himself and his enemy and called out; "Wren! Hyper-jammer!" with all the force that he could muster. His friend heard him and shook the excess spark electricity out of his hand, running with plan B, certain panels of his armor folding away to reveal a series of high frequency broadcasting devices.

Perhaps the sound of that ability activating was familiar to Siren. The android went tense and shouted "No!" into Rune's face, furious that his consciousness was being taken away from him again after a thousand years of sleep. The sound of the hyper-jammer was so high pitched that palmans could not hear it at all, but the sound _was_ quite audible to androids, cats, and admittedly to motavians like Gryz. To those that were able to hear it the hyper jammer was like a shrill, unbearable, pealing song.

Within seconds Siren was another immobile body lying on the floor with Rune on top of him. The light and awareness had left his eyes and now he was just staring, blind. Wren came over and helped Rune up, pulling him off the other wren-type. It seemed really quiet around them now according to the esper's radio, and he could see that the smoke from the damaged cryochamber was beginning to lessen. Rune gathered his bearings quickly. "How much time do we have before he wakes up again?" He asked, feeling the need to flee.

"Any amount of time between one and six minutes. I advise that we get out of here as soon as possible. Can you still run?"

Rune smiled steadily. "For a few minutes, I think. Time for a strategic retreat. Let's get out of here."

And run they did, directly back the way they had came. Rune breathed harshly through his radio but after every safe second had passed he was glad they were leaving Siren far behind. Wren was maintaining pace with him easily although he could have run much faster if he wanted to, keeping Rune's back protected from potential attacks. They had totally failed their mission but at least it had been a _spectacular_ failure, as opposed to just a mediocre one. Ancient killer magic-using androids had not been on their list of potential enemies.

Even so, Rune still wished he could have learned why Siren had known the age-old venerated spell of flaeli, along with the more commonly used githu technique. That machine had been a walking mystery, albeit a spiteful one, and the Lutz had wanted to understand _why_.

Fortunately, or unfortunately for him, he would know soon enough.


	9. Castle in the Sky

The very second that Rune burst through the airlock onto the surface of Azura he was prepared. It was just as well too, for the living golem trapped outside had been just as prepared as Rune was, yet it had the patience of a near-immortal on its side. It had been looming over the airlock with one huge formless fist raised, waiting to bring it down like a sledgehammer on the very first thing that passed through.

But Rune was an intelligent esper and knew how golems worked and thought of things from his studies back at the esper mansion. He had a plan himself. As the doors slid open Rune kept himself rooted in the threshold, tossing something he had picked up off the floor into the surface world. It was the same trick for springing a mouse trap, and the golems were not true sentient creatures so they wouldn't be expecting it. The esper smiled, but on the inside he was desperately impatient to get the hell out of there.

The severed claw of a silvault would work just fine for him. He had snatched it up near the exit of the facility and while it would have made an absolutely _killer_ back scratcher Rune needed it as bait. As he threw the limb the little bit of robot became subject to Azura's outer gravity and didn't bounce as it hit the ground, it just fell there like a glittering piece of skeleton. A crushing stone fist came down upon the fragment with several tons of force behind the blow. Rune couldn't help but step back slightly as he witnessed this, bumping into Wren who had been waiting patiently behind him.

Rune was still running the show. When the exact moment was right they would move again. The esper was the only one who could effectively kill the golem so all the pressure was on him. As the giant monster raised its fist from the ground and saw that no bloodied palman smear lay beneath it, Rune acted. He burst out of the open airlock and darted around the impact zone as fast as gravity would allow, gravel rolling under the soles of his boots as he came to a stop and pointed a spellcasting hand at the abomination.

"Seals!" Rune cried and felt the energy being wrenched from his body as the spell was called into existence, glowing blue hieroglyphs sucking the golem's source of power away. The golem moaned in anger as it realised its time was up, and unwillingly gave in to oblivion as its consciousness ebbed and faded. It joined its brother and became just as it had been before, a formless, unidentifiable statue. Good riddance to bad guardians.

Wren came up and pushed Rune forward with a weak little shove. It was good that Rune had been able to neutralize the enemy but they did not have a second to spare. "Back to the ship." He said curtly and took the point position for himself this time, giving Rune something to follow. Soon enough they would have to come back here, to Azura, but for now they needed to gather, regroup and assess their losses. Too many unexpected things had gone wrong.

The esper saw Wren's lips move but he couldn't make out the words. By the time he realised that the radio had crapped out on him his android companion had already moved on ahead. The message was pretty clear though and Rune followed along behind him, one hand fiddling with his wrist in order to get the radio online again. The uneasy crackles it had made earlier were enough for Rune to worry that the damn thing might have broken. It just wouldn't respond. Great.

But the idea that Siren might be alive again by now and trailing them weighed far more heavily on his mind than the busted radio did. Rune could live with the silence between here and their spaceship for now. All he need do was watch Wren's back and his own. He looked over his shoulder every so often, half expecting the red haired wren-type to be only five paces away from them with his gun drawn, or his hand raised in readying a conjuration.

That Siren had used real, true magic and Rune needed to know why. It wasn't a skill you could just load into a machine on a whim, flaeli had been a thousand years worth of improvement on a fire spell created during the time of Lassic and Alis Landale. Noah's master had taught it, then Noah in turn, and so forth until it had been a staple spell of the espers in the mansion. At some point that wisdom must have been leaked, transcoded somehow and then implanted into the Siren that had attacked them. It was the only way that made sense.

Only that was a load of bullshit. Esper magic couldn't be coded, broken down and then handed to somebody like a gift. To be a true magician it was all in the soul, the mind and the willpower. There was no genetic or physical evidence to explain the reason _why_ the espers bore the powers that they had, but it was a common point of belief amongst the inhabitants of Dezoris that people made espers of themselves from their own choosing, from a subconscious inclination in their souls.

That was how the seed was sown, at least. Once a person's potential was discovered what came after was training. Diligent, thorough, excruciating training. It was then that the potential became power, and that power became magic. Rune himself had come from a family that had had the magical history of a clod of dirt, but from the rough came the diamond, as they say. Could something like that have happened to an android? A will, a desire, and a conviction so strong that it could have created potential?

If androids had souls, then it might be possible. When Rune looked at Wren and especially at Demi he could almost believe that was so, but they were only two androids up against the hundreds and maybe thousands of brainless, thoughtless robots he had encountered as the Lutz. Rune didn't know what to think or to believe. He just didn't have enough information to make up his mind, but Siren still bugged him even though he was now far behind.

The shape of the Myau Eighteen was coming back into view, just as they had left it an hour or so earlier. Rune had never been so glad to see a spaceship before, it was enough to want to make him go back to the Myst Vale and give the ship's namesake a kiss on his great big furry mouth. Doing all that pondering with his nerves on edge hadn't helped Rune's headache much. He felt weak and faint, and he couldn't help his hands from shaking a bit. Near-migraines were always like that, but the esper just wanted to get his damn space suit off and sit down.

At the entrance of the ship Wren halted and turned to Rune, saying something that he was totally unable to hear or understand. The esper just looked back blankly at him. After a couple of moments Wren seemed to get the idea of what was wrong and went on ahead instead, climbing up a ladder that was a little too small for him on the Myau's side. He opened the sealed hatch by swiping the Waizz Star over the scanner rather than merely entering the correct password and climbed inside. Leaning out of the doorway a bit, he gestured mutely for Rune to follow.

Rune followed gladly. He ascended the ladder as quickly as he could and accepted Wren's hand as it was held out for him, the android hauling the esper up into the ship's airlock the rest of the way. The door snapped closed behind them and they were safe, locked away from the dangerous blue moon. Passing through the airlock they went back into the _true_ part of the ship, where there was warmth, normal gravity and oxygen to consume.

The magician got his helmet off at the very first chance he had. Rune sighed and smoothed down some of his hair that had been sticking up slightly, able to rest at last. Wren disconnected his photon eraser cannon from his arm and put the safety on, placing it down by the ship's entrance. He didn't waste any time. "I shall go to the bridge and make preparations for departure. Lift-off estimated at five minutes. You can relax now, Rune." He said.

"I'll come with you." Rune replied as he straightened up again. If they really were leaving here the esper knew that he needed to be in the co-pilot's seat or risk getting smashed to the ground when the spaceship took off. He placed his helmet down alongside Wren's gun and was very glad to be rid of it, then he followed his friend up to the bridge where he flopped down into one of the chairs. It was mind-boggling how an hour and a half of space exploration had left him feeling so drained.

As Wren began the preparations Rune's tide of inevitable questions began to pile up, starting with the simplest one first. "Do you mind if I take this space suit off now? Don't worry, I'm wearing some clothes underneath. This damn thing is killing me."

"If you wish. I do not care." Wren answered as he accessed the ship's computer and made deep contact with its mainframe. Rune nodded in gratitude and stood once more, beginning to wrestle his way out of the heavy garment. It was much easier to take off than to put it on, but it was still quite a chore to do alone. Rune would have appreciated some help but Wren was the only other person there and he was busy plotting their course back to Zelan.

Rune began to emerge from the space suit after a couple of minutes, like a moth breaking free of its cocoon. Only this moth hadn't really transformed at all and was only a tired, headachy esper. He was just wearing his green pants and socks, along with a paler green undershirt that looked very worn. He laid the empty suit down against the wall and took his original seat, strapping himself in.

"Okay, what the hell was that all about?" He said at last.

The Myau Eighteen rumbled as its jets fired and it began to raise itself into the air. Its pilot was mostly preoccupied with flying, but he could still talk and give answers at the same time. "I am just as mystified as you are. An enemy target attacked us and we had no choice but to retreat. It is my hope that the second time will be more successful now that we know what to expect. I do not like to do this but I believe we should take Demi with us next time to create a party of three. We may be able to overpower the enemy with our numbers."

"Wait, wait, wait." Rune announced suddenly. "What do you mean 'next time'? We just barely escaped that guy by the skin of our teeth and you're saying that we should go back for more?" Without thinking Rune held his head lightly with a hand, protecting where it hurt the most. "That android back there was hurling _esper_ spells at us! I don't get it, since when have machines been able to do that? Wren?"

"I have never heard of that circumstance before. The wren series was created for their adaptability and combat prowess to replace the common soldier. This did not include your race of people, Rune." The windscreen of the cockpit was beginning to fill up with stars. In about half an hour they would be docking with Zelan. Wren continued emotionlessly. "The Alisa Three must be removed from the Algo system. If the inhabitants of the dome worlds are to ever find a location to colonize then they must move on. If Siren prohibits its then he must also be removed. It is very simple. I do not see the problem."

"The problem is that you're underestimating what a person with esper spells can do. You don't just learn them overnight. That Siren we just saw might be your big brother and all but don't think for a moment that it's okay for you to pretend he's just another enemy target." Rune tried to reason with him. Wren had not been around when he, Chaz and Rika had fought Zio. He didn't know what kind of damage espers turned bad could do. The android had only known Rune and Kyra and they had been friendly targets, using their powers only when needed.

They were safely in space now and their course to Zelan was set, locked firmly into the auto pilot. Wren was free to take his hands away from the wheel and his eyes from the windscreen. In a first for what seemed like a very long time Wren turned to Rune and actually looked offended, looked vaguely angry. "That Siren was in no way my 'big brother'. Do not try to insinuate that ever again. Our series type may have been the same but that was the only similarity we shared. All I wish is to see Algo in balance again."

For five awkward minutes they shared a silence. On Azura androids and espers had killed each other wantonly, and now after their excursion there Rune and Wren were having trouble not picking each other apart. The subject of race is such a funny thing, people could go about and be civil to one another without even noticing it, but once it was placed right in front of them it was impossible to ignore. On Azura who had been at fault, the androids or the espers?

"I think the radio in my suit is broken." Rune said finally, just wanting to dispel the silence on the bridge. If nobody talked then he'd have to start thinking, and if he did that his thoughts would go around and around in circles again.

"Likewise I lost communication with Zelan while we were within Azura's spaceport. That is why we stopped receiving the transmissions of the others after a time." Wren replied mechanically, and distantly.

"Boy, everybody up there must be worried sick." Rune mused as he leant back into his chair, gladly resting his weary head. Today had been one of the stranger days in his experience. He hoped the others were okay.

"We will be with them shortly. Please be patient." The android reassured him. Whatever small sense of anger he had displayed to Rune was now gone, replaced by indifferent apathy.

So Rune decided to take that advice and be very patient. He was so impatient and tired, in fact, that despite all that had happened to him in the past hour or so Rune fell asleep.

†††

Siren lay inactive on the ground for close to five minutes, immobile, still. Rune and Wren had gotten the better of him and had fled while the going was good, yet that was not the last they were going to hear of the servant of Orakio, the slayer of Layan scum. Siren's recovery function booted automatically after a time and the ancient wren-type opened his eyes again, blank but somehow smoldering with anger. He was conditionally emotionless, that was, he showed no emotion at all unless the situation called for it. And Siren was angry, furious and burning with rage.

The layan and his friend had tricked him! They had gotten away! He pulled himself into a standing position and considered going after them while the trail was still hot and fresh, but that would not be a very wise thing for him to do. Wildly chasing after an enemy was the inclination of a common foot soldier, and Siren was no such thing. Siren was old, and he was massively intelligent. Aside from an explosive, wicked temper his mind was as cold and as logical as deep space. No, he would not be able to catch up with them now, but…

He walked towards the broken cryogenic chamber and retrieved his dropped weapon. The gun wasn't damaged and Siren rewired the accessory back into his right arm, connecting the cables to the ports and thinking all the while. His biometric clock told him that one thousand years had elapsed since he had entered his cold dark sleep at knife-point, the deadly slasher of Lune and the small army of foul sorcerers behind him a large enough incentive to put his life away. Siren scowled. Chances were the green-haired warlord no longer walked upon the land of the living. It was a shame, Siren had wanted to put a bullet in his brow in repayment.

One thousand years had passed and yet Siren felt nothing at all about it. People that he had once known, familiar faces and voices gone, lost to time. The only things that the android had known and put faith into had been the will and way of his master, and the soul of his partner. Siren looked to the entrance of Azura's spaceport, heading for it at a leisurely pace. The enemy must be in their ship by now, getting ready to go home.

What would his master Orakio have bade him to do, had he been here to give orders? Siren did not possess enough of an imagination to guess. With the hyper-jamming frequency gone from tormenting his body Siren was free to experience all his half-frozen system creeping back up to their optimal performance. He could understand that the layan people had caused the Devastation Wars which had resulted in the deaths of thousands of innocent people, and he had seen with his own eyes the magical backer of the layan race. His Lord Orakio had stood beside him that day along with the android Mium. Together they had battled the entity known as Dark Force.

Lord Orakio had died that day and he could do no more than imprison it despite the absolutely phenomenal skill of his sword. Orakio had sealed Dark Force into a sacred temple by piercing its wicked heart and pinning it down onto the seal for forevermore. The creature was eternal and would never die, its powers living on in the dark magics of the layan race. They were possessed by evil, filled with it, and they would never be whole pure beings ever again. Layans were really no better than demons, that was why Siren took so much quiescent pleasure in destroying them.

He could hardly believe that the dark race had survived, even up until now. It meant that all the effort he had put into his mission and purpose had been for naught. He had not succeeded, but he could be grateful for all the experience he had gathered up until now, experiences that would tell him exactly what to do. Siren opened the airlock and walked out onto the barren surface of the moon. The sudden lack of atmosphere didn't faze him, didn't bother him, and the low gravity meant nothing to him at all.

Siren maneuvered around the frozen and immobile golems turned back into statues at the entrance, passing them by as if they were just part of the scenery. The android had spectacular long-range vision and he looked up slowly, tracking the ascent of the moderately distant spaceship with his eyes. If he hadn't taken his time he might have been able to catch up with them, but they were out of his reach now. The blue-haired layan and the orakian traitor had gotten away.

Only not quite. Siren was free to take all the time in the worlds. The spaceship was rapidly becoming a little pinprick of reflected light as it flew further and further away from the surface of Azura, yet its direction was clear. Like a moon orbiting another moon, Zelan hung in the sky like a floating castle. It was impossible to miss. The wren-type android smiled, but there was nothing friendly about it. It was a lovely space station, but it seemed to be either a base or a resting point for the enemy. It might be packed _full_ of layans. What blasphemy!

He needed to destroy those two explorers for the crime of merely existing. His logic was so cold and simple to him, it felt pure and right. It was true that the layan had fought back when he had attacked him, but despite that information the layan had not really tried to hurt him of his own choosing. Siren's smile faded as he thought about that. This was not because they had woken him up from his deep sleep, if anything Siren was truly grateful for that, no, this was because it correlated to his pre-programmed mission, to his own desires.

He supposed that the other wren-type android, the Forren could be forgiven if he would earnestly renounce his allegiance to the layan people and would come back into the light. Siren could feel forgiveness and mercy for other androids, but for Rune there would be none. His people had followed the will of Dark Force, had killed his loyal comrades, and had slain his master. There could never be any forgiveness for that.

Consumed by his own thoughts Siren turned on his heel curtly and faced the twin blue-stone golems partially barring the way. Worthless dolls. Away with them! No more prisons, he was free! He raised his weapon to the primitive constructs and showed no change in his expression when he took both of their heads clean off their bodies. A rocking boom sounded the as two shots fired, an accurate double-blast causing it to slowly rain rubble and chunks of semi molten stone.

His unaltered aim was still perfect and that was quite satisfactory to him. The force of the impact pushed the now headless bodies backwards and they broke apart on contact with the ground, sending up a very lazy cloud of dust. Siren went back the way he had came and entered the correct number code into the access panel, not needing anything as devious as a Waizz Star to pass on through. This spaceport had once been his headquarters, so he knew all the passwords. He had created most of them himself.

Had he been palman he might have felt something for the dead shells of his servants lying all about the facility. As he was, Siren knew that machines did not need or deserve the grief. Losing his servants had just been another strategic setback for him, or another good reason to exact revenge. Siren inspected a great many of these felled machines, checking their vital spots and places of injury. The layans that had attacked Azura knew all about robot and android construction and had used that information well. There was hardly a robot in the throng that had not been utterly destroyed.

But not quite. The red haired wren-type managed to find two worker bots and one slave apparatus that had not had all their vital systems completely damaged. Using his rather considerable strength Siren dragged them one at a time to the clear center of the spaceport, arranging them in a line. Kneeling, the android used his most prized skill, something he had learned at the side of Lord Orakio himself and diligently got to work. This was what he enjoyed most of all, even more than layan-slaying.

Siren repaired whatever systems he could of the three damaged robots using his bare hands, then he was forced to compromise their already flimsy life-support systems by connecting them back to their various power sources and ordering them back into mock-life. The machines twitched and flinched as they sat up and recognised their quiet, calm master. It seemed like the workers and the slave wouldn't last much longer than ten minutes before their systems failed and they became scrap metal all over again.

That was alright. If Siren wanted long-term servants he could make them later. For now he just needed one simple task done. "Do you see my cryochamber, the device resting against the far wall? I order you to remove it for me. Do it now or I shall take back the life that I have given you." He didn't need to threaten them. The machines were so broken and so close to dying that they would have attempted to obey the command no matter what it was. They would die obeying their orders, that much was certain.

And that was what Siren thought was the honorable, acceptable way to go. He watched silently as the three half sentient machines moaned and dragged and whimpered their way towards the side of the cryogenic chamber, lurching about like swaying zombies. One worker keeled over and died just as its stumpy limbs touched the surface of the device, yet the others took no notice of it. In fact, the slave robot actually _stood_ on the fallen worker, crushing it underfoot.

This was _real_ servitude at work. Siren impartially watched his two remaining servants die in front of him as they struggled to complete their set task. Through all their efforts they had not even been able to entirely succeed. When the gigantic slave finally died last, about three minutes after the other worker had kicked the bucket, half of the pathway had been forced open. It was wide enough for three people to walk abreast and still fit through, but the doorway was not fully open. It was wide enough.

Up ahead was the hangar where all the space shuttles were stored and the sub-level runway that led up to the surface world lay. Once Siren opened the closed gates to the runway he'd have a leisurely amount of time to select a spaceship that seemed worthy of him and repair it. He was certain that all the tools he would ever need would already be stored on the ships. About seven spaceships would be waiting for him quietly, their auto pilots programmed for a course straight to the Alisa Three. They were made for short, quick little flights, not deep space travel.

Siren could easily kill the auto pilot and plan a quaint course of his own, one that would lead directly to the metallic castle in the sky. If he stayed on Azura all he could do was fester in his cold rage and that would accomplish nothing. It was time to _begin_ something, and that something was a hunt, one millennia overdue. Siren moved to the doorway and walked over the bodies of his dead servants, their pains forgotten, their short lives forgotten, but their sacrifice well made.

In the name of his master, and in the name of all the pure-hearted orakians that had died under the might of the layan scourge, Zelan must fall.

†††

Rune was able to gather about twenty short minutes of blissful shuteye before Wren gently shook him awake. They had just successfully docked at Zelan and the others were waiting outside for them, gathered into a little group. It felt like a cheat to be woken up after so short a nap, he hadn't even had enough time to dream, but the brief rest had glossed over in his mind the things that had happened to him over in Azura, making it all seem so unreal. Rune rose from the co-pilot's seat and stretched, ready to meet up with his friends.

Standing out on the walkway and heading the pack of friends was Chaz Ashley, still standing out and carrying himself like a leader even though that time had passed for him. By his side was Rika, now subdued and quiet, her mind partially on the secret she had discovered in room thirty nine. Demi and Hahn were also there as well, expectant and hopeful while Raja stood at the back, tall enough to see comfortably over everybody's heads. It was a sizeable 'welcome back' party, though they were all fiercely worried about their two missing friends so it became more of a 'please tell us you're alright' party instead.

When the doorway to the Myau Eighteen opened up and connected seamlessly with the walkway everyone appeared to hold their breath. They of course knew that the explorers had been unable to complete their mission, they had returned far too early for that, but they had no idea why the mission had been aborted in the first place. It was a mystery to them. When Zelan had broken contact with Wren's electronic signal and they lost both visual and audio Chaz nearly threw a fit. He had hated the idea that something might have happened and there was nothing he could do to help.

Rika had returned to the others from her little 'walk' right after Zelan and Demi had lost Wren's signal. Age-old technology rarely worked flawlessly anymore but she had been surprised at Chaz's juvenile outburst, and only she had been able to calm him down. They had remarked upon how ashen her face had looked, how freaked out she seemed to be, and Chaz most of all noticed the sizeable tear in her long pink dress at the shoulder, showing a bit of skin. She had made up excuses for all those things, plausible ones too, but her eyes had strayed to where Demi was sitting calmly in her chair, unaware of what Rika had found.

But anyway, the focus was now on Rune as he was the first person to step out of the spaceship unharmed. The Lutz looked excessively tired, kind of weak, and he did not resist it when Chaz rushed up to him and gave the esper more walking support. It had felt so weird to be at normal gravity at one moment, low gravity at another moment and then to feel the pressure of the Gs at takeoff. His body was still trying to adjust. "Rune!" Chaz exclaimed eagerly, helping him along. "What happened down there? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, and it's a long story." Rune answered tiredly and tried to push the youth away. He didn't need any help to walk, he could do that on his own. The esper looked up and saw the others waiting for him, cheerful Demi, silly Raja and intelligent Hahn. He turned to Rika though and smiled. Rune had always kind of liked Rika. If Chaz hadn't been there first and foremost in the beginning he might have made a pass at her himself. "There you are. I was wondering where you had run off to."

His words caused the girl to raise her head and smile genuinely. She had been very worried too, but as she was about to say something Wren stepped out of the ship beside Rune and Demi animated herself immediately. "Master!" She cried and ran to him on her short little legs, her emotions set free now that her friends were safe. The android girl grabbed his hand and tugged on it long enough for Wren to give in and drop to one knee, so she was able to wrap her arms around his neck and give him a hug.

"Did you see any moon men?" Raja laughed as he leant on his silver staff, overseeing the reunion with mirth. "Well, aside from those rock moon men we saw. That was a pretty engaging battle, you know! Hahn and I were about to start placing bets! You should have lasted longer, I had you to win by a knockout in the fifth round!"

"Gosh, when I saw that statue's eyes light up I thought I was going to faint. I thought I was going to witness the death of my friends over a computer screen." Hahn admitted with relief. Thankfully his quick judgement and reflexes had saved the day.

"Demi… please let go of me. I cannot move like this." Wren said in order to get his clinging servant off him. He had only been gone for an hour or three so there was no need for such a display of affection. Demi shook her head like she didn't want to but let go a couple of seconds later, unable to disobey an order, even if it was expressed as a simple request.

Hugs were contagious again as Rika took her turn with Rune. The esper wondered if the numan girl regretted it, as he was a little sweaty from all his time in his space suit. Over her head Rune glanced at Chaz and became very serious. "We all need to sit down and have a meeting or something. Let Wren and I tell you guys the long story of what the hell just happened and figure out what to do next. I don't know how much of Azura you saw." They probably hadn't seen Siren, as one of them would have mentioned it by now.

Rika pulled away and looked up at Rune carefully. She was very interested in what they had to say because she had missed out on so much. Rika may have retired from fighting but that certainly didn't mean she had retired from being useful. She could still think, plan and be helpful, her mind just as sharp as her claws had been.

"Let's go back to the main control room. We can talk there." The girl's gaze swept across the spaceship hangar, connecting with every person there. "Come on, let's move."


	10. Silent Wren

"So you're saying that you were going fine until you hit a roadblock, and that roadblock happened to be an ancient crazy esper-android?"

Rune nodded. "That's basically what I'm saying, yeah."

Rika just looked at Rune as if he had a screw loose. She wasn't the only one who regarded the magician that way, both Hahn and Chaz wore similar expressions too. It wasn't as if they thought he was lying, it was just a little difficult to believe, that was all. They were back in the main area of Zelan now, the master control room with some people sitting in metallic chairs, a few just standing up and the rest had taken residence sitting on the floor. The meeting would have appeared very casual to the eye of the unattached observer, a bunch of friends just chatting away, but the topic of their conversation was anything but casual.

Two people had seen this 'ancient crazy esper-android' but only one person was willing to tell the tale. Rune had taken up the role of storyteller while Wren was sitting down and kind of staring off into space. Demi glanced over at him from time to time, in worry. "We were going to go grab a shuttle so we could reach the worldship but there was a large machine blocking the way. I eventually recognised it because it was very similar to the cryogenic chamber that the Lutz incarnations sleep in. This one looked newer, I think. But that part doesn't matter, the guy that came out of the machine does."

"Did he wake up when you approached the machine or did you have to wake him up yourselves?" Hahn asked with one hand on his elbow, the other one touching his chin. Rune seemed absolutely wiped out right now but he had been able to change back into the rest of the clothing he had left on Zelan, grateful for the exchange. They were lucky that Rune or Wren had not been hurt. From Rune's story he could tell that they had just escaped by the skin of their teeth.

"First we tried to move the machine by ourselves. It was massively heavy so it didn't work, even with Wren helping me. It was his idea to wake up the person inside and have them help us move the chamber out of the way." As he finished speaking the esper looked at his friend who had also been there. Wren finally glanced up at him when he detected the mention of his name. Rune hadn't meant to make it sound like he was accusing the android of bad judgement, but one way or another it came out sounding that way.

It didn't matter how Rune phrased it anyway, because it was the truth and Wren knew it. If there had been any mistakes made during that mission it had been that one, and it had been his. The wren-type was vaguely apologetic. "That is correct. I awoke the android in the hopes that he would aid us in out predicament. The siren class android was in good working order and showed no hostilities to anyone until he encountered Rune. At that point he became violent and we attempted to restrain him." He explained in monotone.

"He was a racist jerk." Rune announced with a large dollop of bitter relish, crossing his arms. "He was being all buddy-buddy with Wren but the moment he saw me I was dubbed a 'filthy Layan' and he tried to shoot my head clean off my shoulders. I wasn't going to stand for that, so I let him have it with a flaeli and you know what happened? The android turned it right back at me! My spell! My _esper_ spell!" His proclamation didn't receive the shock and amazement that it should have. Most of his audience just stared back blankly at him.

But Rune knew that if Kyra had been around her jaw would have hit the floor. He felt the need to elaborate some more. "Only espers can cast the flaeli spell. Only magicians can use true magic, not just techniques. We espers are a proud line of flesh-and-blood people, with _real_souls that aren't just a pile of microchips and plastic. I can't understand how an android would have knowledge of any of the esper teachings. I'm the damned _Lutz_ and I know this wisdom is locked up tight."

"Um… Rune?" Demi interrupted meekly from where she was sitting, her pale green eyes looking slightly hurt. "Are you saying that you think androids don't have souls?" Rune had been the one to talk about racism earlier but he had just said something pretty tactless himself. He hadn't meant to, but he had been thinking about it earlier and it had slipped out of him along with the rest of the story.

"That's, uh, that's not what I meant." He backtracked sharply, raising his hands in self defense. Rune liked the little android and he didn't want to hurt her feelings. This strange sort of tension, it came from that ruined spaceport on Azura, where espers and androids had once been mortal enemies. It was like that line of thinking had infiltrated his brain now and he couldn't easily shake it free. Doubtless Wren was also feeling the very same way, that was why he had clammed up so suddenly. Poor Demi was ignorant of what he and Wren had seen. She would not be able to understand.

Chaz cleared his throat and Rune welcomed the interruption. "Getting back on topic now, you've said that you had to retreat because this android was targeting Rune especially and you two were afraid his space suit might get wrecked?" The blond hunter got an affirmation out of Wren and a nod from Rune. He didn't know what to make of this information but it was good to know that people still paid attention to him when he talked, even though he was not their leader anymore. "It reminds me of that hunter's guild case we took on a few years back, the one with Daughter and Vahal Fort. What _is_ a siren specifically, anyway?"

"A siren is specifically a wren-type android geared for tactical warfare, infiltration, espionage and information retrieval. All the dirty, unscrupulous missions were taken by siren androids when the administration could not afford to deal with the bureaucratic red tape associated with normal government agents. The name Siren is a truncation of 'Silent Wren', because if a siren completes its mission properly then nobody would detect it until it is too late." Wren informed everybody matter-of-factly. He had dealt with a few of them a long time ago during the collapse wars, back in the jungles of Motavia when there had once been such a thing,

Rune sighed deeply. "I don't think this has anything to do with Vahal Fort, but if we're gonna discuss things lets keep it nice and simple, okay?" An ironic request, seeing as he had been the one to bring up magic and souls in the first place. "I don't really want to go back to Azura, not with that Siren thirsting for my blood. But if all the people living on that worldship are ever going to have a chance at finding a planet of their own they need to get moving again. They have to get out of Algo as soon as possible, so Wren and I have to go back."

"I do not like the idea either," Wren agreed, "but Rune is correct. We have infiltrated Azura once and we can do it again, and next time we will have some idea of what to expect. We must devise a plan to dispatch the siren while keeping Rune unharmed." Easier said than done. Nobody even had to first inklings of a plan yet.

"Wait." Said Hahn, still musing like the perfect scholar that he was. He had listened carefully to what everybody had had to say and felt that he needed to put his two meseta in now. If he didn't everyone might not see what he saw. "From what I hear the siren only got angry when he saw Rune approach him. He was acting friendly to Wren beforehand, right?"

"To an extent." The android confirmed.

"So what if Rune just stays here with us and you can go and sort out Siren by yourself, or with Demi if you don't want to go alone? If he only wants to consort with his own kind just let him, and then when his guard's down… bam! Spark him good!" Hahn looked pleased with his own ingenuity, but Wren didn't seem too thrilled with the idea. He had fought back against the siren android in defense of his friend, that was all. He didn't want to be the one to maliciously start a confrontation despite it already having moved far past that by now.

Demi brightened a little. "Are you saying that I get to take Rune's place? Oh Hahn, I'm terrified of leading a mission by myself but I'd be more than happy following Master Wren's orders! Battlefields and enemy targets don't scare me!" She asserted, pressing her hands together. The Lutz wouldn't have minded giving up his seat on the Myau Eighteen to Demi if only it weren't for the insistent troubling feeling that if Demi went out on a dangerous mission she wouldn't come back alive again. He had felt it before and now he was feeling it again through his tiredness and headache.

The one thing that Rune's mind wanted to spin in circles about was the notion of an android esper. It wouldn't go away, wouldn't leave him alone, because his lineage was pure and thinking of Siren throwing that spell at him tainted it in some way. Maybe he wasn't as open-minded as he had originally thought himself to be. "No… no." He said to the green-haired girl firmly. "I don't mind if you come too, Demi, but nobody's kicking me out of this mission. I was there when it began and I'll be there when I see it end. I have a grudge against Siren now."

"I was getting really jealous of you, Rune." Chaz said as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other. He appeared very honest in his face and he smiled. "I wanted to go to Azura instead. But seeing what happened on that camera and how you looked when you came back here, it kind of put me off the whole idea of being a space explorer. You look just like crap right now." The youth laughed. Rune was not amused. It had been a very long day.

"Thanks Chaz. Bottled air and having gravity stretching you every which way can do that to you, so I'm told." Rune replied to Chaz sarcastically. "Sudden combat don't help either. I'm tired, I want to go to sleep…" And with that announcement he leant over and rested his head on Rika's shoulder, the side that had not been torn by Mieus' flailing claws. She didn't shove Rune away as she would have if the esper was a stranger, he was a very close friend and he had worked himself hard today. He deserved it, and she knew that Chaz wouldn't mind. Rika gently put her arm around Rune, holding him nice and steady.

Chaz smiled at his fiancée and his friend. "Okay, now I'm _really_getting jealous of Rune!" His exclamation coaxed a wicked little grin onto the magician's face. Raja and Hahn laughed at that and it seemed like the meeting was beginning to wrap itself up with their linchpin getting too tired to talk anymore. It made sense, Rune had been up since dawn and by now it would already be deep into the dezorian night.

Wren personally didn't want to end the meeting so soon seeing that no definite plans had been made, but he was dealing with mortals here and he knew they tired easily. Three years with Demi for company had nearly made him forget the months of travel he had undertaken with the others, and all on a palman's twenty four hour schedule. He had adapted to it and he would have to do so again. "We shall continue this conversation later once those requiring rest have slept. There are some dormitories on the southern side of Zelan. They will accommodate you if you wish. Demi can take you there."

"Did palmans used to live on Zelan?" Hahn asked when the prospect of a bed and a room to sleep in came up. He had expected that if they were going to stay on the space station overnight they were invariably going to have to sleep on the floor. He was glad that was not the case, his back was delicate and sometimes the slightest thing could set it off. A thought came to the scholar and he brightened, answering his own question. "Oh, that's right! Zelan was a climate control and weather forecasting station before it became as important as it is today. So there would have been whole teams of scientists living here long before Wren would have shown up."

The dark-haired android quirked an eyebrow at Hahn, intrigued. The scholar's guesswork had hit remarkably close to the mark. As a history teacher he must have been taking his studies very seriously. Palmans had not lived on Zelan for at least seven centuries but the station could still accommodate them in case it was ever required again. Those were the days when he had been a servant and not a master, just another face in the crowd when his use as a weapon had come to an end…

He registered that Demi was speaking a few seconds after she had begun talking. The way that she animated herself when she spoke about something positive was interesting to watch. "I didn't think everybody was going to be sleeping over or else I would have gone to the dorms and tidied them up a little. I've never been there and I have _no_ idea what state they're in. Please let me apologise now in case they're a mess." She bowed dutifully in order to show her sincerity.

Rune opened his eyes and sat up straight again, taking his head off Rika's comfortable shoulder. "It won't take much to make it nicer than my cave." He assured her, feeling Chaz looking at him in amusement at the notion of him living in a cave. The young hunter could see in his mind's eye a cranky rampaging Rune living at the top of some snowy peak and he could understand why sightings of abominable snowmen were so common. He snickered at the thought.

"Just give me a bed, a blanket and a corner to pray in and I'll be happy." Raja said as he put a hand on Demi's small shoulder. They had been protectors of Algo, they had roughed it in dozens of different climes so this would be nothing. They all got to their feet in ones and twos, those who had been sitting down that was, and expected to be led like little lambs to wherever they were meant to go.

Wren fit in one last closing statement. "Azura is a hostile environment. Demi will accompany us next time, so I will leave Rika in charge of Zelan in our absence. I will conduct a briefing in nine hours time. I expect to see everybody assembled here without excuse. You are dismissed."

The sudden army-talk came as a bit of a surprise, even to Demi. Wren looked rather preoccupied with whatever it was he was processing so she decided to leave him be. It wasn't in her place to ask questions, even though she wanted to.

The amount of secrets that a person can keep in their lifetime is simply staggering. Everybody carried them, including Demi, but Wren had, perhaps, the heaviest secret there could possibly be.

And it was about to get them all killed.

†††

"Well, here we are!" That exclamation was coupled with a strident crash. Demi had wrenched the stuck hallway door leading into the dormitories open with her bare hands. Maybe she had pulled a little too firmly, or maybe this door was made of a particularly weak material because she nearly yanked the whole thing off its hinges. There had once been a lock on the door but it had been made of a rust-prone metal and wore away. The crash that they had all heard was a pile of forgotten tools and things tipping over and scattering on the ground.

The entrance to the dormitories had a conventional swing door instead of a futuristic sliding one. It might have made the scientists feel more at home. Demi looked down at the disturbance she had caused and put her hands to her mouth in surprise, but the others didn't really care. They were tired and they wanted to get some sleep, especially considering Wren was going to drag them out of their beds in about nine hours time.

The dezorian, the numan and the three palmans navigated around the dropped instruments with measured care. The tools sort of looked like stuff that might be used for surgery. Demi hurried after them, making a mental note to clean up the mess when she had a chance. The hallway of the dormitories looked like the most abandoned area within Zelan, but as Rune glanced around it with exhaustion-blurred eyes he could tell that it also felt the friendliest. It wasn't a sterile metal hallway, not entirely at least, the palmans that had been living here had done their best to make it feel like home.

"Wow…" Hahn breathed as he inspected the place, looking up and down the long corridor. Nobody had been in here for so long that it was a perfectly preserved historical site, displaying palman culture from a thousand years ago. The scholar had half a mind to kick everybody back out of the area so they wouldn't disturb or mess the place up. Each door leading into a dormitory had a little plastic cover on it, about the size of an envelope, where a piece of paper could be slipped underneath and protected. The notes contained the occupant's name and profession, along with any other tidbits scribbled on the paper.

The doors and walls were also decorated with posters, pictures, photos and some sparse graffiti. Only palmans could have been so messy. Intrigued, Hahn and Chaz ran ahead and looked over the walls with childish interest, afraid to touch in case the pictures crumbled away. "Oh wow, look at _this_ Hahn! This looks like a picture from… well, I dunno where, but look! The ground is entirely green! It's all grass and oh my god, can you see all those trees? I've never _seen_so many in one place!" Chaz exclaimed, reviewing a picture of old Piata.

"I like the looks of _this_scenery better!" Raja called from the beginning of the corridor, examining a poster of a rather skimpily dressed pin-up girl. She would have been _just fine_, if only she had been green skinned and hairless. Oh well, the bishop felt that he could still appreciate the picture anyhow. He laughed loudly and heartily when Chaz rolled his eyes at him, moving on.

"This graffiti here reads; 'Melchaiah you bastard, give me my money back', and another says; 'The rebels are cowards, Orakio will lie in a mass grave with all the others'. Oh, and this one here says to disregard that, somebody named Reyenne likes to suck…" Hahn halted, then smirked a little. "Oh dear. That doesn't sound very scientific or polite at all." He said.

"Look at the names of some of the people that lived here." Rika pointed out as she walked down the corridor by herself, pausing only to read out the name and tap the piece of plastic with a finely manicured nail. "P. Rosenberg, meteorologist. A. Larson, astronomer. A. Lanning, roboticist. J. Sakamoto, another roboticist. One more meteorologist here, S. Steiner, then V. Bush and J. C. Lilly. Those two don't have their jobs written down. I wonder what they did around here?" Rika wondered out loud.

"Does it really matter?" Rune answered irritably. "All of them are dead now."

Rika seemed to take Rune's harsh statement personally. Frowning sadly she ignored him and went back to what she was doing, reading out the names, as if speaking them aloud would somehow bring them back to life. "These ones have full names here. Lawrence Antony, Leera Darling and Gibson Gold. Hellion Harvey, and hello… what's this?"

She stopped at one of the doors that looked no different to the others. It caught her eye because the name on the door was exceedingly long and decorated with many happy little smiley faces. Also, crammed into the plastic along with the name and profession tag was a badly-folded piece of paper. It seemed like it had been shoved in there with haste centuries ago. Rika carefully coaxed it out with two fingers and read the name tag beneath. "'Doctor Samuel Zonderling the twenty eighth. Shall I reiterate? _Doctor_, my friend'." She turned to her friends dotting the hallway. "That's actually what's written here. How eccentric!"

"Sounds like he might be related to Raja somehow." Chaz joked, walking up the corridor to his fiancée's side. Rika was telling the truth, it was all written there on the door. The happy smiles were a nice touch. The hunter's gaze dropped down to the folded note in Rika's hands. "What do you think that might be?" He pressed curiously.

"Let's see…" The girl mumbled quietly as she unfolded the paper to its original shape. It was in pretty good condition because Zelan was such a sterile environment, but Rika was still afraid she might tear it by mistake. The very first thing that stuck out in her mind was the letterhead, printed neatly at the tope of the page. It read; 'Motavian Department of Criminal Affairs'. Below was just a very short message written in black ink, simple and concise. She read it out loud for all to hear.

"Hey Doc. I bribed a guard to get this note sent to you. I figured that after everything I've done so far what harm could one more little crime do? I just wanted to thank you for trying to defend me at the trial. Even if it didn't make any difference it's the thought that counts and I _do_ appreciate what you did for me. You're a good person, Doc."

"I overheard that they're going to be giving me over to the firing squad. There's also talk that Lieutenant Colonel Forren will be heading it. Looks like he's jumped out of retirement to wish me a fond farewell. It might be pointless to say that I'm sorry for what I did, but I don't regret it what I did either. I'm sure I did the right thing. Goodbye Doc. See you later. I'm not allowed to write down my name anymore but you know who I am. Take care."

Rika folded up the note again and stuffed it back into the plastic case in the door. It didn't make much sense to her and nothing stuck in her mind particularly, but it felt like that note had been very serious and very important once. Not anymore, but it had been an interesting read. "Demi, isn't Wren a forren-type too?" She called to the android girl, busy tidying up the fallen mess from earlier.

Demi looked up from what she was doing after stacking a case of trimate on top of something to be identified as a case of very long-expired beer and surgical clamps. Straightening herself up after the job was done she seemed pleased. "Oh yes, but there were about a hundred and forty forrens in circulation during the last years when these dormitories were used. I've never heard any lieutenant colonel stuff from Master Wren either, so I believe that little piece of paper must be referencing somebody else. It's a shame though, the way that capital punishment was so strict in those days." Demi shook her head in dismay. "Life is too precious to send out in front of a firing squad."

The way that Demi said that, and the feeling she used to say it with grazed the edge of Rune's heart like a strobe light. The proof that some androids did indeed have souls was self evident in this green-haired girl. There was caring in those words, something that could not be a farce. But where did that leave Siren, who had also cast a spell that required a soul to create? If there had been complexity in that cold monster Rune had not stuck around long enough to find it.

Similarly Rune was not going to stick around long enough to fall asleep on his feet. He pushed in the door of the room closest to him and poked his head inside. S. Steiner's room looked clean and tidy enough, and there was even a little chess set left on the table, a game still half-complete. From what Rune could see the black army had been winning substantially. This place would be good enough for him. The magician turned to Chaz and smiled. "Well, I'll see you guys tomorrow then. Goodnight."

His friends wished him a small collection of goodnights and Rune closed the door leading into the hallway, stumbling over to the cleanly made bed and then flopping down into it as if all his bones had suddenly dissolved. Great Light, he had forgotten just how good and soft a real mattress could feel. The bed wasn't extremely comfortable but it was far better than a sleeping bag on the floor, so Rune was completely dead to the world in just under five minutes.

The others on the outside were picking out their rooms too. Raja took the one with the pretty girl poster on the door while Hahn had poked around and found that Leera Darling's room was packed with pre-collapse books. When he realised that Hahn was already sold, even if the dormitory had belonged to a woman and pink had been her favorite colour. Chaz and Rika were going to stay in the eccentric doctor's room in case they found any other interesting little pieces of history in there. The rest of the protectors weren't quite as tired as Rune was so they were free to take their time.

Chaz had gone over to Raja's room to see what the old bishop was guffawing about now and Rika could hear the hunter exclaim; "Oh wow… you sure this is where a _priest_should be staying?" then both he and Raja were laughing together. Doctor Zonderling's room was clearly something else, it was in a state that only a hyperactive six year old could maintain, provided that six year old liked to play with surgical equipment, machines and tools. Despite the state of the place Rika felt that she could feel at home here, as if the hospitality that had come from the occupant of a thousand years ago had seeped into the walls.

The numan girl sat on the bed that was just about the tidiest thing in the room and waited for Chaz to come back, toying with the rip in the fabric of her dress with an idle hand. Nobody had pressed her firmly on the reason why her clothing had torn. They had been too busy worrying about Rune and Wren, yet Rika could not forget about the sleeping girl in room thirty nine, on the other side of Zelan. The Alisa Three and the android Siren were the topics of the night but that did not concern her as much as the girl did. Probably because the worldship was so far away and Siren was just a distant notion to her, while Mieus had been _real_.

She had left the door open for Chaz so her voice would be able to carry well. "Demi." Rika called clearly and in about fifteen seconds the shorter green-haired girl appeared in the threshold of the dormitory. Rika gestured for her to come inside. "Demi, can I talk to you about something before Chaz comes back?" She asked. She didn't want to keep any secrets from Chaz, Rika loved him enough not to conceal things from him, but what she had seen tied itself solely to Demi, and perhaps maybe Wren, and she needed to talk to one of them privately instead.

"Of course. What is it, Rika?" Demi smiled as she entered the room. Rika scooted over a little on the edge of the bed so her friend would have some space to sit down. Demi's feet barely touched the floor from where she sat. Looking over at the pointy eared girl the android could tell that something was wrong. This wasn't going to be a light-hearted conversation but she might find out what had been keeping Rika quiet all evening.

Demi had very honest eyes. That was what made it easier to admit where she had gone. "I went for a walk this afternoon and I wasn't completely truthful with everybody regarding where I had gone. I went into the storage area, block A, room thirty nine." When Rika told her this Demi placed the tips of her fingers against her mouth again and her whole demeanor changed. She went from seeming concerned to seeming downright sullen. The android averted her gaze from Rika and looked at the floor. "I was curious because you seemed so sad when you were staring at it, just as sad as you seem now. I'm sorry."

"No, you don't have to apologise." Demi answered without looking up at her friend. The floor was easier to talk to right now than Rika's face. "Nobody told you not to go in there, so you didn't break anybody's trust by going inside. In retrospect maybe I should have said something earlier. Did you see anything in particular that you wanted to talk about?"

Knowing that she wasn't in any kind of trouble didn't necessarily make Rika feel better. She was surprised that Demi, who was usually a little bundle of cheer looked so withdrawn now. She wasn't in trouble but she had caused trouble all the same. Still, she had started this line of inquiry so she might as well see it to the end. "Why is there a girl sleeping in room thirty nine? I thought the storage area was only used for broken androids and things. When I woke her up she didn't seem damaged, but she did get violent."

The android gasped and jerked her head up to stare at Rika. "You woke her up?" She breathed.

"Um, only for a minute or so, then I put her back to sleep." Rika explained nervously. "Nobody got hurt."

Demi was in deep thought for several moments before she answered, mimicking a sigh. "Well that's a big relief to me. I don't want to see any of my friends getting hurt. I'm glad you told me about this instead of Master Wren, he gets very touchy regarding Mieus. If you had told him he might have moved her body away from A block and put her somewhere else. He might not have told me where he'd put her and then I'd never see her again. Maybe he'd even destroy her to keep it from ever happening again."

Would Wren really do that if it made Demi sad? Doubtless that android girl had been extremely dangerous, if it wasn't for Rika's amazingly honed reflexes Mieus would have easily slit her throat with her claws. Demi knew that Mieus was dangerous but cared about her all the same. She was a very caring person but it would have taken a lot more than unattached caring to make Demi appear so sad. "If you don't mind, could I ask why that girl is hidden there and subdued with a slave collar? If she's so dangerous why don't you and Wren just destroy her?"

"I could never kill her, and I could never let Wren kill her either. I'll never let him." Rika was silently surprised when Demi either forgot or deliberately didn't use Wren's honorific. There was a faint undercurrent of determination in her voice that rose for only a few seconds and then faded away again. "But I should not be mad at him. Everything that he did was in order to protect me. I just wish there could have been another way." She watched Demi clasp her hands in her lap. "Years ago Mieus killed a lot of innocent people, and when I stepped in to stop her she tried to kill me as well. That was when Wren said enough was enough and he stopped her himself."

"Who is Mieus? Where did she come from and how was she able to kill people? This happened on Zelan, didn't it?" Rika pressed, a picture that clarified what had happened forming in her mind. It was rude to ask so many questions of Demi but Rika really wanted to know. Rune and Wren were dealing with Siren, Rika wanted to deal with Mieus too. These were the last questions she needed to ask to make the puzzle complete.

But Demi was prepared to answer only one of the questions, not both, and briefly at that. She and Rika were friends but there was a limit to which that friendship could stretch. Those were private matters for herself and her master to deal with. The android girl got up off the bed and quietly walked to the entrance of the room. She turned back to observe Rika who looked sad. "I don't want to talk about this anymore. I'm sorry Rika, it's nothing personal."

"I understand. Really, I do." Rika offered in feeble consolation.

"You know, it really is my fault and I've taken full responsibility for it. For her. I love Mieus, I thought everything would work out fine, but from the very beginning there was something I missed, something Wren discovered that I never did. I still don't know what it was." Demi smiled a little, bravely. "Mieus is my daughter, and I'll always love her for that alone. Goodnight Rika. See you tomorrow."

The little android girl left a speechless Rika behind with a small wave. It was an unexpected revelation, but in an odd, twisted way it all made sense somehow.

Rika did not tell Chaz anything when he returned. For all intents and purposes that conversation had never taken place. She went to bed with Chaz resting beside her and pretended that they were home again in Aiedo, where everything was alright. It was only through this fantasy that Rika was able to drop off to sleep.

†††

It was easier than Siren had expected to get aboard Zelan undetected.

It was simply shameful, really. All he needed to do was get close enough to the station with his space shuttle and then send out an alarm interrupt program wirelessly to Zelan, killing off all the warning signals of an approaching ship. Zelan's security system was a joke, if was almost as if the floating castle in the sky had not anticipated an attack for hundreds of years. Anyway, the firewalls that protected Zelan's security system were so pathetic that Siren thought he might even be able to crack them wirelessly, then and there.

But he wanted to get inside Zelan before he did any serious damage. Poking a hole in the alarm and intruder notification system was enough for now. Siren flew his ship closer to the station with his arms folded and his eyes closed, steering and monitoring solely through the connections that he bore. He dwelled on thoughts of dark revenge, as he always did, punctuating the pulses of the security firewall breaker he was pushing deeply in his mind. He was chloroforming Zelan silently, as was the wont of the Silent Wren, and nobody on board had even noticed yet. If everything went well, flawlessly, nobody ever would.

If Siren was anything he was dangerously experienced. A thousands years of inactivity had left him practically itching to do as much damage as possible. He almost hoped that the personnel aboard the station would notice him, just so that it would make his mission all the more interesting. That did not permit or excuse any mistakes, however. All there could be was perfection, nothing else.

Another factor that made it so much easier to get inside the space station was its low personnel count. The red-haired android didn't know how many were up there but he assumed that it would be a lot, not just seven different people gathered from all sides of the Algo system. Wren, who should have been monitoring the security of Zelan was off somewhere else planning out the strategy for the next move on Azura in the morning. He hadn't anticipated or even _conceived_ of the idea that Siren might be coming to _them_, instead of the other way around. This was another one of his mistakes that would cost him so badly later on.

Once the firewall was satisfactorily disabled Siren searched through all the different programs to find the switch that would open the space station up for docking. Several of Zelan's programs were accessible from his hacking distance but others required manual, physical manipulation from the computers on Zelan's bridge. Siren just followed back on the log of who had activated what programs for the last couple of days and noticed that only two androids, a wren-type and an unknown type to him called a demi had been accessing Zelan at all for a very long time. Of course the layan and the layan sympathizer must have docked at Zelan no more than a few hours ago, so Siren backtracked and found what he was looking for with relative ease.

The fact that the log was so repetitive with its users gave gravity to the idea that there weren't many people living on Zelan, yet that did not excuse them for being worthless layan scum. The lack of people, security and complications would just make Siren more difficult to detect. The ill-willed android took his time docking his space shuttle and wisely left it hidden behind the mammoth Landale, where it could not be seen. He had come prepared with his gun, his magic and his wits about him. It was time to begin.

The spaceship bay was completely empty. He could not detect any biological or electrical life signs anywhere. On the flip side of things nobody would ever be able to detect _him_. He'd stay out of the line of vision to any flesh-and-blood layans and his own electrical signal would not be discernible to androids either. He was the Silent Wren, after all. Siren quickly made his way down the ramp with his gun at the ready and exited the docking bay, making a quick note of how many spaceships were resting within. There was no telling if that information might come in handy later.

His destination was the main bridge and the control center of the station, yet Siren took an extremely roundabout way in reaching it. The greatest and most important piece of advice regarding infiltration, other than the obvious 'Don't be seen' was; 'Time spent in reconnaissance is seldom wasted'. They were wise words. Once upon a time they had been his master Orakio's words. To know his enemy Siren did as he was bade.

The hallways of Zelan were adequately lit and Siren didn't like that at all. He stepped out into the corridor and glanced left and right tensely, looking for enemies. Taking his hand off his gun for a moment he reached up and touched the underside of his jaw and neck, where his pulse should have been, activating his most clever and crafty disguise. Siren's form shimmered for a bit before it nearly faded out altogether, cloaking him with a reflective silhouette. Thermoptical camouflage had been one of the palman government's greatest inventions before the entire planet had been destroyed.

Siren was nearly impossible to see now, especially in the drab metallic hallway. A person would have had to stare at him for a good long while before they caught the tiny tricks of the light that would give his location away. Anybody who laid eyes on him wouldn't even get a second to stare before Siren silenced them for eternity. The wren-type smiled wickedly, invisibly. He was glad that his thermoptics still worked. Now it was time to get to the bottom of this dreary little pit full of vapid heathens.

He stalked the hallways of Zelan like a watchful ghost, inspecting and calculating all that he saw, at the same time drawing up a very detailed map of the space station's structure and layout. It was important to understand where everything was in case his quarry beat a hasty retreat to the exit. Siren already had a pretty good idea on what he was going to do to them. It took about an hour of careful scouting for the invisible soldier to make a round of Zelan and then end up where he had started from.

Zelan had a main control area, an extensive storage area, a large scientific laboratory area and a cozy dormitory area. It really was too good to waste, but it was time to get on with it. Siren had even gone deeply into the dorms, had listened to the breathing and snores of the people inside and knew that it would be _so_ easy to sneak in and throttle them all in their sleep. Easy but _too_easy, perhaps. As the android walked to the bridge he thought that the layans deserved to be perfectly conscious and terrified when they died.

Hours after Chaz and company had gone off with Demi to rest Wren was still at the bridge. He was sitting down in one of the metal chairs in front of Zelan's mainframe and looked to be lost in thought, or maybe he was programming wirelessly just as Siren had done so an hour earlier. The cloaked android entered the bridge without making a sound and Wren did not notice him. How could he? Siren was invisible, both physically and in almost any other kind of way. In truth, only Rune could have sensed him for the esper power that was in his body, but the Lutz was snoring and drooling into his pillow half a space station away.

Siren savored every little step he took toward the layan sympathizer, and the closer he got without Wren sensing him the greater his pleasure became. This was why Siren liked what he did, there was power in being a force of righteousness on the verge of committing cold, heartless, enthralling justice. Wren leaned forward to hit a button on the control panel just as Siren was practically standing behind him at the shoulder, within the reach of his arm. The wren-type had not noticed the security breach, had not noticed _anything_!

In the name of Orakio Sa Ruik, of all the Sa Ruik clan, and by the will of the Great Light Siren took revenge.

His thermoptics deactivated as Siren lashed out like a viper and grabbed Wren around the neck with both arms, his gun-arm pressing ferociously hard against Wren's throat while the other one wrapped around to cover Wren's mouth. It was this hand that crackled with green, jagged spark electricity. Siren was leaning over in a way so that he couldn't see Wren's face, but he didn't need to. Wren had begun to raise his hands to his throat when Siren said, venomously; "Move your hands at all and I will force-feed you this spark I have here. Place your hands by your sides and then do not move."

"Mmnff." Wren said after a hesitant second and then did as he was told. There was no guessing over who was standing behind him, he knew. Damn it! How had Siren gotten on board? How did he get a spaceship and why hadn't Zelan alerted him to his arrival? Wren wasn't afraid of what Siren could do to him but he _was_very surprised. The only fears he had were for his friends, and for Zelan itself.

Siren squeezed until the pressure became uncomfortable, then let up a little. "I was quite disappointed when you and your layan friend decided to leave. You did not give me a chance to say goodbye. I will say goodbye to you now, but first do you have anything to say to me?" The red-haired android moved his hand so that Wren was able to speak verbally again, grasping Wren's left audio sensor and then pulling until the other android had to tilt his head to avoid injury.

"You do not know what you are doing. Siren, this is now a world that you will not be able to understand." Wren said coldly, without emotion.

Had it been a plea for mercy Siren would have given it to him. He had decided on as much earlier considering that this wren wasn't a layan and was only a sympathizer. There always lay the possibility that the layans might have tricked him somehow. But Siren had given him a chance and Wren had ignored it. That was too bad, because he fancied that he would need servants in this brand new world soon enough. "Goodbye Forren." Siren said curtly and then electrocuted him, sparking him right to the side of the head.

For as big and as strong as Wren was, all it took was a single spark to bring him down. Moments later the caretaker of Zelan was slumped in his chair and completely unconscious, that was, until his self-repair and reboot functions would kick in to revive him. Siren was not perturbed, he smiled as he grabbed Wren by the shoulder and roughly shoved him onto the floor, enjoying listening to the heavy crash. He had about six to ten minutes before he'd have to deal with Wren again, but by that time he'd be long gone from the room.

The android from Azura had only had one target in mind when he came to Zelan. After taking Wren's seat he found that target within moments.

To create a painful death for all who breathed, Siren made a few gentle keystrokes on Zelan's control panel and ordered an emergency shut down of the life support system, locking it afterwards with a secure password. Death for layans, death for _all_of them! In half an hour Zelan would become totally uninhabitable, like the surface of his beautiful blue moon.

As he turned to exit the bridge, leaving Wren crumpled on the floor, Siren laughed.


	11. Run Like Hell

Initially Siren misjudged Wren's ability to repair himself while unconscious and that more than anything else gave himself and his friends a fighting chance to survive. Usually it would take five to six minutes for him to return to optimal condition and therefore consciousness, but Wren had seen the danger Zelan was in with Siren holding him and he at the last moment had altered his reboot specifications accordingly. Instead of six minutes Wren recovered in two, working at only thirty percent capacity. It was the palman equivalent of having an extremely heavy concussion but Wren had to endure it this way because he had no time to lose.

He grabbed at whatever he could to help him stand up, first the edge of the control panel and then the chair, sparing himself a valuable second to gather his bearings. His mind wasn't working as fast as it should, he felt so dazed and he had to consciously _think_ about what had happened and what he needed to do next. Siren had gotten aboard Zelan somehow, had knocked him out and there had been absolutely nothing after that. Wren glanced around the room in case Siren was still about, but if that were so he probably would have never regained consciousness in the first place.

In any case, he was alone in the room. Wren put a hand to his head to steady his sensation of dizziness. If the enemy was not here then he was elsewhere in the space station, and that place might be where his friends slept peacefully and were absolutely defenseless. He couldn't have been knocked out for very long and the dormitories were a ten minute walk away. If Siren had been running he still wouldn't be there by now. Wren thought that if he could contact Demi as fast as he was able and she showed initiative they might stand a chance. She would be close to the others, wouldn't she? Wren wasn't sure, it was so hard to reason correctly while working at such a low capacity.

The most important thing was for him to remain calm. This at least was easy to do, even as he looked at the main screen of the control panel and saw that _somebody_ had ordered Zelan to shut down its life-support system, attaching to the program a timer. Twenty seven minutes and dropping until the space station would become completely uninhabitable. Siren just left nasty surprises wherever he went, it seemed.

Anybody else at this stage would have panicked. Even a great many androids would have felt nervous by the pressure, but Wren was an expressly calm person even by android standards. His capacity had crept up to thirty seven percent so he might as well have a go at fixing this unfortunate error. When he tried to enable the life- support system again it asked for a simple four digit password. It figured, sirens specialized in sneaky tactics like that and he had locked the program up tight.

Wren ran several password-cracking applications through the computer to bust open the lock but none seemed to work, refusing to acknowledge the program entirely. The android felt a tiny spark of frustration after two minutes of trying to crack the password had elapsed. The only way he'd be able to get past this would be manually. If he couldn't fix this thing then his living breathing friends didn't have the time for him to sit there blindly guessing.

He contacted Demi. It was easy to do because she was always a part of his system network. Many centuries ago this had been comprised of plenty of other androids, intelligent computers and even the communicators of a few specific palman leaders. Demi was the only other frequently active user now. She was online and her location was pretty close by. _/ "Demi." / _Wren said to her without moving his mouth, speaking the words in another language that only other androids could decipher and understand. _/ "Demi, can you hear me? I need to speak with you." /_

He got a reply almost immediately, as if the girl was in the room with him and conversing right by his side. Network communications were just like telepathy but without the magic involved. Demi managed to sound chipper and cheerful even in the middle of pseudo-night. _/ "Yes Master, what is it? Are you going to stop being a worry-wart about that esper android and come away from the computer for a few hours? That might be nice." / _Somewhere on Zelan she would be undoubtedly smiling.

Well, he did not enjoy or dislike it either way but he had to wipe that smile off her face. The countdown had already reached twenty-six minutes and falling, and Wren was still having no success with the password. _/ "Listen to me and listen very closely." / _He intoned carefully. _/ "The siren-type from the Azura satellite has boarded Zelan undetected. I have lost his location but I am sure that he would be extremely hostile if encountered. Everybody is in grave danger." / _

_/ "However that is regrettably the least of our problems. Siren seems to have tampered with the life support system. It is rigged to reach zero percent output in twenty five minutes and forty six seconds. There is a password but I am still in the process of deciphering it. Demi, what I want you to do is gather our friends and relocate them to an independent life support system while watching for Siren who will no doubt be searching for you. Do you understand me?" /_

For two seconds there was silence over the connection, then Demi replied in such a way that made Wren grateful she was his servant. She knew exactly when displays of palman personality were appropriate and when cold hard android acquiescence and resolution were needed. _/ "Understood, sir. I will act on orders accordingly. The sole siren-type has been entered into my registry as target -01. Will engage target if required. Can you suggest a location where an independent life support may be procured?" /_

Wren's capacity had hit forty-five percent. The number was rising just as Zelan's oxygen supply and temperature were dropping. He must have entered three hundred different passwords into the computer but still no luck. Wren lacked the imagination to guess creatively, so what if he couldn't do this? What if he couldn't get by this program? He would have to abandon it, he supposed. _/ "The Landale has a workable life support system. Get everybody aboard. If you see Siren and he antagonizes you then you have clearance to move the Landale out into open space." / _

_/ "What about you?" /_

Yes, that was exactly what he was considering right now. If things took a poor turn then he would have to choose between staying on Zelan by himself or evacuating the space station with the others. Wait, that wasn't right. If he stayed behind to work on the password he'd have Siren around to keep him company. It was a tough choice, he had deep loyalties in both places. _/ "…I will attempt to enable the life support for another seven minutes and if I am unsuccessful I will go and meet you at the Landale docking bay. I will not allow Siren to harm my friends." / _He said finally.

He was not quite certain if he was making the right or wrong decision. Zelan meant everything to him, it was his life, his purpose. If he had to leave all that to an android who did not even know when or _where_ he was, well, Wren just couldn't let that happen to something that was his responsibility. However, becoming responsible for the deaths of his five friends was not something he would relish either.

Demi processed the information quickly. _/ "Yes. I will see you at the Landale, Master Wren." /_

If she wasn't up and moving by now then the little android girl had better get her butt into gear. This damned password! He had no idea what it could be. Siren had been part of a divergence of Algo's timeline, the worldship's history. Information from those times was not a part of his data banks. _/ "Take care." / _The android added after a distracted second. The next time he saw her he didn't want it to be with Demi in pieces.

_/ "I shall. I'm disconnecting now." /_

_/ "Roger. Please hurry! Go!" /_

†††

When the communication ended Demi raised her head and got up from the table she had been sitting on. Fortunately the place where she had decided to rest for the night was not that far away from the dormitories. She could be there easily within two short shakes of a rappy's bottom. It was lucky she had only been thinking instead of switching off into standby mode, or else Wren would never have been able to reach her. So Siren was aboard Zelan now. That was exciting, but at the same time, terrifying.

She had never met him before. If she did would he be a clone of her master, only evil and nasty? Demi could hardly even conceive of a wren-type actively trying to harm her. Maybe she had just been living with her master for too long, it had been a lengthy but pleasant three hundred years. Demi let go of Mieus, the sleeping girl she had been hugging to her chest and hopped off the table. Rika's explorations earlier had left the mieu-type lying shut down in such a state that Demi just had to fix her up and make her look at peace again.

The illusion was beneficial to Demi more than anything else. She would be the very first to admit that she didn't know anything about being a good parent but she liked to know where Mieus was and if she was okay, that was all. "I'll be back soon, I promise." She said quickly to the girl and bolted out of the room, running as fast as her short little legs could carry her. The entranceway shut behind her fluidly but she did not notice one tiny insignificant thing, a shred of Rika's ripped dress stuck between the sliding doors.

Gods, twenty five minutes was a ridiculously small timeframe to work with. Demi wasn't even sure she could get all her friends awake and alert within that period. During the time she and the others had traveled about and fought Zio she remembered that Rune needed at least half an hour and a cup of tea even to function properly. They'd just have to listen to her, she reasoned, and if they didn't she'd jump on them until they did.

For a while the only audible sound in the corridors was the clanging of Demi's feet upon the ground. She was already planning how to do this, waking Chaz and Rika first, then Hahn and Raja with Rune last. If she couldn't awaken the esper by herself then her other four friends would be able to help her. She felt comforted by this but her thoughts still lingered on Mieus. Did Rika think she was a bad person for letting Wren put her into an eternal sleep? It had seemed like the only reasonable thing to do at the time, though it had hurt her figurative heart so. She missed hearing the girl laughing and wandering throughout the station, constantly asking questions.

But it was selfish to be thinking of the past when the present was in so much jeopardy. Demi flung open the doorway to the hallways and sent the pile of assorted odds-and-ends crashing to the floor for the _second_ time that night. She didn't pause, didn't have time to pick anything up, yet she sort of hoped that the loud noise might have done something in the way of waking everybody up. That would be nice. A roll of batteries traveled across the floor but was interrupted for a second by Demi's ankle as she scurried further inside.

Raja was already waiting in the hallway. He was dressed and he had his staff by his side, looking as sober as a… well, as a priest. He hadn't been able to sleep well, somewhere deep inside of him, his own inner voice or perhaps the voice of his deity had whispered to him to stay sharp. Earlier it had felt like he was being watched as he knelt in the corner and spoke his evening prayers. Actually, it had felt more like something evil had been stalking the halls nearby. He did not yet know how right he was.

He narrowed his already particularly narrow eyes as Demi skidded to a halt in front of him. The girl had to look up at him as she barely even came up to his waist. "Raja, thank goodness," she said seriously, "we need to wake everybody up and get inside the Landale as soon as possible! You go wake up Hahn and I will awaken Chaz and Rika! Quick, quick!" She moved around him and ran toward the professor's dormitory on the far end of the corridor.

The dezorian was happy to do as she said but he was a little in the dark as to what was going on. He had picked up on the tension and the seriousness of it all but he needed words to tell him of the situation. Raja turned towards Demi and raised his hands slightly. "Whoa there, girl! Where's the fire? Why do we have to get out of here?" He asked kindly.

"Because if we don't Zelan will suffer a life support collapse and you along with the others will die." Demi said gravely. She was trying to seem as serious as she possibly could but on her cute and somewhat reassuring face it made it seem no more horrible, than, say, being late for church on a sabbath day.

"Oh. Fair enough then. Off I go!" Raja said while still appearing a little confused. Demi looked up to the professor's door and opened it with a touch, counting down each valuable second within her mind.

A thought came to her. She certainly hoped that she wasn't going to be interrupting anything, seeing as Chaz and Rika were a couple now and it was nighttime and all. Even if she _was_ going to be interrupting something better that than having all her friends suffocate and freeze. Demi stepped into the eccentrically decorated room and all was quiet, save for a pair of slow, soft breathing. Ah, they were both still sleeping. That was good but it had to end now.

She stood beside the bed and touched what she identified as Chaz's shoulder, giving him a good firm shake. "Chaz," she said quickly, shaking harder, "Chaz, please wake up now. It's urgent."

The boy buried his head deeper into the pillow and groaned as a result. "Not now Rika, 'm tired…" He slurred.

Rika sat up in bed, the blanket pooling at her waist. She looked about a dozen times more alert than her fiance. Her sleep had been fraught with many bad dreams, ones so elusive that the moment she noticed they were there all detail of them was lost. One thing that she _did_ notice though was her friend Demi standing beside their bed. From the corridor outside she could also hear Raja talking to Hahn. "What's going on?" She asked, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

"We need to get to the Landale as quickly as we can. We have about," Demi checked her memory to see if she was correct, "eighteen minutes until Zelan's life support fails to a point in which your continuing existence is unsustainable. I have to wake everybody up and we need to _run_, you understand?"

The numan girl understood quite well what would happen when an organism bred for one type of atmosphere was forced to exist within _another_ atmosphere, or in this case, a lack of one. The seriousness of the situation got through to her easily. Rika slipped out of bed, her bare feet touching the floor. As she began to put on her shoes she said; "You go and deal with Rune now and I'll wake up Chaz. I know how to get him up in less than a minute, so don't worry." She smiled reassuringly.

If they all worked together they could do this. As Demi rushed out of the room to get to Rune Rika leaned over a sleeping Chaz and gently patted his short blond hair. "Chaz honey…" She cooed softly. Ten seconds later everybody could hear the hunter laughing himself awake. Whatever she was doing to him seemed to have worked.

Rune was a problem, lying on the bed it looked like he was attempting to strangle his pillow. Demi tried waking him up but it was like he was in a coma, unresponsive to her words. Of course the Lutz would have been tired from exploring that satellite last night, but Demi would have thought that he might sleep lightly because of Siren nearby. Raja had sensed that threat though she would never quite know _how_, things like that were not a part of her world. Rune rolled over and sighed as Demi let go of him. It was time for the last resort.

"Wake up, Rune! Listen to me! Siren is coming! He is here on this station! We need to get out of here!" She cried. Hahn had been walking by the room as she said this and overheard Demi's declaration. He froze in mid-step. Was that really true? Nobody had told _him_ about that yet. Hahn poked his head into the room, paused and then stepped inside. It looked like Demi needed some help.

"I learned a trick for waking slackers up many years ago." Hahn whispered as he moved to stand by Demi's side. "A professor from the academy used to implement it all the time when I was a student. It woke me up quite a few times during class, too. Watch." Leaning over, Hahn stuck his hand under the covers and searched for a patch of skin. When he found it the historian smiled just slightly and cast a very weak wat spell. He wasn't going to hurt Rune but the very sudden cold where there had once been heat should easily do the trick.

The result was instantaneous. Rune uttered a distinctly parrot-like squawk and sat bolt upright in bed, raising his hands as if to defend himself from an incoming attack. His long blue hair was loose and fell down his shoulders in two little waterfalls. "What?" Rune slurred in confusion. "Wha? Who?" He was beginning to sound more like an owl than a parrot. Blinking, he glanced to Hahn for answers, his expression of bewilderment already turning to annoyance. "What the hell do you want at this ungodly hour, Hahn?" He groaned.

Hahn pulled his hand away and awkwardly rubbed at the side of his neck. He had an idea of what was going on but from what Demi had shouted earlier there was probably more stuff happening that he didn't know about. "All I know is that if we don't get inside the Landale in about twenty minutes or so we're all going to run out of air. Demi said Siren is here on Zelan. I don't think that's a very good thing."

At first it didn't get through to him, but after a second of the concept hanging in the air it finally did. The esper did a double-take. "_What?_" He roared.

Demi's voice was subdued. "It's true."

After that it was easy to get everyone organised. Rune, after a few seconds of understandable cursing and rhetorical questions threw on his cloak, grabbed his staff tucked under the bed and was ready to go. Chaz and Rika were in the hallway with Raja. The blond-haired hunter looked like he was well on the way to freaking out, Rika being the only thing that was keeping him calm. Chaz had a habit of losing his nerve when disaster was nigh. With the six protectors all gathered Demi finally explained to them everything that Wren had imparted to her, including the mention of Siren and Zelan's current state.

They took the information rather well. Demi suspected that it was mostly because they did not have enough time to panic. She had been clear and very brief for there was also no time to go into detail. If they ran to the spaceship docks and did not tarry it should only take them ten minutes to get to the Landale. They would have to cross through the main area before the storage blocks and head east until they got there. If they were lucky they might even meet up with Wren along the way.

Demi and her hastily gathered company ran. The little android girl could literally run for hours without getting tired, but _she_ didn't have to breathe the air constantly growing thinner and colder all around her. Her flesh-and-blood friends were exceptionally healthy people and were able to keep up with her, save for Raja who was just a little bit slower but doing fantastically for his age. The dezorian priest was only two or so meters behind, and when that distance began to grow larger and larger the rest of the group slowed down just slightly so he could catch up again. They would not leave anyone behind.

Seconds counted themselves down, then minutes. Demi kept a good lookout for Siren who might decide to ambush them at any time but she didn't really know what she was looking for. All she knew was that Siren was a wren-type and that he'd be out hunting for their blood. Most of all she was afraid that the might turn a corner in the corridor and run into Wren, only to run him through before they had a chance to identify who he really was. The team was lacking vital information about their foe, information that Wren had not known about himself.

They did not know that Siren was cloaked and practically undetectable. When Siren had snuck up on Wren from behind the control android had not had a chance to see the thermoptical system in action. Even if Demi and company _did_ run into Siren they would not know about it until it was too late. Seven minutes after they had left the dormitories and were nearing their destination, with Raja panting and Hahn beginning to feel a little short of breath, disaster struck.

The group of confused and rushed protectors ran right into Siren. It was nearly a physical collision but the stealth android detected them first and had the wits to get out of the way in time. He had been on the way to the spaceship docks himself to give his heathen playthings an ambushing surprise, but it seemed like they were in such a damn hurry that they couldn't wait. That was fine then, dying here or dying at the docks, it really didn't matter to him as long as the job was done.

Siren flattened himself up against the wall and let them run by, getting up and following them soon after. He could see that the strange green-skinned man was lagging behind. Like a weak sick animal straying from the pack it would just be _so_ easy to sneak out, grab the dezorian with both hands under the chin and then snap his neck. He could do it quickly and concisely and the straggler would not feel a thing. That would grab their attention all right and Siren could proceed with the conventional assault.

Between pants Raja gasped; "I feel like I'm being followed!"

"Why do you think that?" Rika answered near the head of the pack.

"Because the goose is walking over my grave!" The dezorian priest declared, about to laugh despite his nervousness and lack of breath, but all of a sudden he felt something cold and distinctly _physical_ grasp at his shoulder from behind.

All his friends knew that Raja bore ungodly sharp reflexes. This had mostly come about from playing various games at Gyuna's bar in Ryuon, along with a horrendous karaoke voice that is not relevant here. Yesterday morning he had almost managed to give Rune a serious concussion using that skill. When Siren touched his shoulder lightly in order to get to his neck a high-pitched scream tore from his wheezing throat, a martial artist type "Kiyaaa!" which gave brunt to his attack when he whipped around in mid-step and swept upwards with his stave, striking Siren under the chin.

The blow didn't hurt the android but Raja could feel from the resistance running along his stave and into his arm that something invisible yet solid was there. It didn't make any sense but Raja was _not_ the kind of person to disbelieve something just because he could not see it. He believed in his god, and he had believed in the Garuberk Tower in much the same fashion. He _was_ a priest after all. "Do ya want a piece of me, you daft phantom?" He threatened loudly with a wicked smile. It was odd but he was enjoying this. "Come here, I'll give you another!"

A voice from nowhere spoke. "Shut up." It said.

He heard a click, then a low persistent whine. Raja tensed, then turned to his friends who had stopped to see what was wrong. They were standing in a little cluster, like bowling pins waiting to be knocked down. It would be a breeze to strike them all at once. The priest had another revelation. "Hey!" He called as he whipped his head over to face them. "It's that robot guy! _Scatter!_"

The blast from Siren's shot was pretty devastating but it was a petty foi technique when compared to the power generated by Siren's spells. He used his cannon first because he always started small and liked to work his way up to the big guns later. That way the only fools who would be able to see his _true_ power were the ones worthy of that kind of death. Rika and Chaz leapt out of the way like a pair of professional acrobats, Hahn hit the dirt like his life was depending on it (which it was), and Rune sidestepped and missed gaining second degree burns by the width of a piece of paper.

Rune had raised an arm up to his face to shield it from the plasma blast. The flash was pretty blinding and left a streaky afterimage imprinted nastily on the surface of his vision. The attack had come from nowhere. Nowhere at all. There simply _was_ no place to hide in this tiny metallic corridor. "Damn it," the esper cursed, unsure of where he should be facing, "Show yourself, Siren!"

He answered with another shot. Chaz screamed as he was somewhat burned, a little too close to the blast zone for comfort. That seemed like a warning shot, or maybe Siren was planning on singing them until the pain was too much to endure. Rune was trying to identify the angle of the shot, hoping that he could pinpoint the source of the fire from there. His friends were scattered now, it was hard to see with them all over the place. Maybe if he… was that movement he just saw? It was weird to see _nothing_ move but he had, or at least he thought he had.

Was it… maybe there?

"Everybody get behind me!" Rune shouted and braced his feet heavily against the ground, drawing one hand back in the casting of a spell. He concentrated, tried to clear his mind and stop thinking about how the oxygen was slowly getting sucked from the air, particle by particle. He closed his eyes and heard his friends gather behind him, but he was particularly worried about Demi who was the most vulnerable of them all. Siren was using some kind of technology to appear invisible to them, but that had to stop now.

When the others were safely out of the blast zone Rune watched for another ripple of invisible movement against the wall. No technology was perfect and the esper was sure he had what it took to stop it. However, if this invisibility was a magical technique then they were royally fucked. A tingle of crackling electricity zipped up his spellcasting arm to his shoulder. It hurt, but only a little, it was more of a twinge than a pain. Rune heard the high-pitched whine of a turbine starting up again and he had to attack _now_, before Siren could let off another shot.

"_Tandle_!" He shouted and called forth multiple bolts of lightning, sapping the charge from the air and the walls of the space station itself. It struck and bounced off the walls with an eager kind of energy, attracted to their invisible foe. As long as Siren was made out of metal he could not escape Rune's spell. The magician could feel Demi clinging to his white cloak behind him, the girl probably reasoning that the safest place for her to be was exactly where the spell's caster stood.

The quality of the air seemed to change. It was becoming noticeably thin already but now it was charged and felt odd, like on a field just before a thunderstorm. The whine from Siren's cannon slowed down and ceased, there was a short crackling series of flickers and then the android's thermoptics died. Suddenly their enemy was standing right in front of them, in plain sight, faint smoke rising from his camouflage system.

There he was. The infamous Siren. Only Rune had had the displeasure of meeting him before so to the others he was still a stranger. To Rika and Chaz it was like they had stumbled across Wren's, _their_ Wren's little brother. Siren was not as broad and was only slightly shorter than Wren, but the way he was outfitted and carried himself made him seem like the bad guy right off the bat. The red hair briefly reminded Demi of Mieus. It was so surreal.

He lowered his weapon and stared at them, just as Rune and the others stared back. He was smiling while Rune and company were not. There was just something not quite right about that smile, it was cruel and venomous even as it looked amused. When the wren-type started laughing it sent cold shivers down Rune's spine. Androids shouldn't be allowed to laugh. Only Demi had permission for something like that. Siren didn't seem at all anxious that six protectors of Algo were on the verge of engaging him in battle, quite the opposite, he seemed eager for a fight.

"Bravo, you have found me." Siren congratulated in a voice that was identical to Wren's. When Demi heard it she ducked behind Rune even more. The android from Azura was in fully functional working order now, unlike the time he and Rune had first met and getting rid of him would be difficult. The esper had been inhibited by the atmosphere last time and it was happening again. Siren brought the breathless cold of deep space with him wherever he went. "It is your turn to hide now and I will find you." He said.

"Why are you doing this? We haven't done anything bad to you!" Rika shouted before Rune could get a word out. She felt so exposed without her weapons but there was nothing that could be done. If she could just reason with him then maybe they would be able to come a mutual understanding. It was worth a try. Back on Azura Rune and Wren mustn't have been in the negotiating mood. Rika felt that she needed to make up for that.

Whatever point she was trying to get across did not even touch the android, let alone get through to him. "You are a pack of filthy layans. That is enough of a reason for me." Siren lowered his gun arm and raised his spellcasting hand. Rune wasn't certain if he was going to cast a tsu, or a flaeli, or perhaps something even nastier. "In the name of Orakio sa Ruik I will destroy you."

"Go to hell, Siren! _Flaeli_!" Rune cried and made good on his shout, creating and hurling a volley of molten fire straight at his enemy. This wasn't the time for negotiations, it was the time for action, or had his friends forgotten that they'd be dead meat in under a quarter of an hour? The magician braced himself against the rush of air that would come when the spell struck its target, hoping that the others had remembered enough about his magic to do the same.

The hot lashback swept over him like a warm woolen blanket, but something was not right. There was far too much heat generated for it to be only a singular spell. Siren had struck back with a flaeli of his own and managed to cancel Rune out, a few pitiful embers and sparks falling to the floor. When the smoke dissipated both the magician and the esper were left unharmed. Siren may have been outnumbered six to one but only a few of those six actually carried arms and were dangerous. He was not afraid.

It seemed like he was going to win either way. If he killed them here where they stood he would win, and if he stalled them long enough for the air to run out he would be able to watch them choking and writhing on the floor like dying cockroaches. That would certainly be a treat to see. Siren's hand was glowing a very dull red from all the heat generated by his flaeli spell. The blue-haired layan also appeared to be sweating heavily. "In the name of Orakio sa Ruik I will destroy you." Siren repeated himself dully, then suddenly he became animated and shouted; "Burn for your sins!"

Raja spoke up, shoving the person who was standing next to him away. Hahn nearly stumbled and tripped over his own feet. The dezorian bishop had not really done much since he had arrived on the space station but there must have been a reason why he was sent here and he needed to have faith in that. "He's stalling for time! Run! Get out of here!" He cried, towering above his friends and raising his hands to chant an invocation.

Another flaeli spell hit the team but once again it was blocked from causing harm, the six protectors shielded by Raja's blessing skill. Hahn was the first one to get the heck out of there, followed by Chaz pulling Rika along behind him. Rune sighed in frustration, he wanted to stay and fight, but he had to consider his friends before he could consider petty thoughts of revenge. He took Demi's hand, the girl still hiding behind him and fled with the android at his side. Once his friends were gone Raja ceased his chant, finishing it off with blowing Siren a quick raspberry and then running away.

Siren turned his head to watch his quarry flee down the corridor. Passively he allowed them to get a few good seconds ahead of him, shaking his spellcasting hand a bit to cool it down. He had already mapped this corridor earlier in the night, he knew exactly where it was going and that there would be no bends in said corridor for a very long time. It offered him a good clean shot if he wanted to shoot them all in the back. It would be an awful way to die, a sudden excruciating pain and burning from behind, then nothing but the uncertainty of death.

But Siren had not considered the idea that somebody was thinking the very same thing, even now. As a stealth android it was virtually impossible for anybody to sneak up on him; he constantly monitored the area around him for signs of electrical activity or breathing. It was one of his many prides. Wren was not trying to sneak up on him, nothing of the sort, he had just been on his way to the spaceship docks and found the red haired wren-type standing in the corridor, charging up his cannon. He had his back to him and Wren thought it so dishonest not to hear an electrical signal for detecting, it was like a thief without a shadow.

He was not going to get another chance like this again. He could hear the footsteps of his friends as they fled. It sounded like… five or six of them altogether, so hopefully nobody had been left behind. Wren dropped to one knee to get the perfect, precise shot, much like soldiers used to do during the wars. Siren's armor looked strong, not standard issue, but if he was accurate enough he might be able to blow a good-sized hole in his back. Wren didn't hate Siren, he told himself that he didn't feel much of anything at all for him, but negotiations were over with and it was time to kill.

Siren sensed him. As soon as Wren entered his exaggerated field of detection he knew he was there. The android whirled to face this new threat, identified the threat as being the wren-type he had disposed of earlier, and gave Wren an honest 'oh-it's-you-I-thought-it-was-going-to-be-somebody-dangerous' smile. Had Wren been Rune, Chaz or possibly even Rika he would have been perturbed, but as he was he shot at Siren impartially.

The shots fired were dampened by the barrier Siren hastily set up, so instead of killing the other android it only managed to wound him. Smoke rose from his armor that had partially degraded in places and stray electricity crackled from those areas. Wren rose from where he had been kneeling and advanced on Siren, intending to finally spark him and put him out of his misery.

Siren selected the most intelligent thing to do. When faced with the choice of two different targets it was prudent to go after the weaker one, starving for oxygen and afraid, and worry about the more hazardous target later. If he left the layans alone for too long they would definitely get away. Siren recovered his balance from being hit by the shot and immediately spun around again, running away and reactivating his repaired thermoptic system, vanishing from view.

That was bad. Wren was only capable of detecting him visually. "Wait." He said in monotone, not really expecting Siren to listen to him but needing to say something all the same. Wren broke out into a sprint, hoping to catch up to the target or get to his friends before the enemy could. He knew that the thermoptics weren't _perfect_, vague glimpses of motion were the only things that could give Siren away and Wren was certain that the other android would not be keeping very still.

He didn't think about what would happen if Siren intentionally hung behind as he passed him, for that would give the other android the opportunity to shoot him just as Wren had shot him before. However, Wren would not be able to sense the shot and raise his own barrier in time.

The funny thing was that Siren knew how to mask every facet of his presence, even his audible footsteps. Wren did not know that Siren had slowed down a little and had fallen in step with him, running by his side. It masked his footsteps wonderfully. He could so easily reach out and spark the traitorous layan sympathizer again, but he had bigger fish to fry. Mostly he wanted this wren-type to see his friends die, whether by the failing of the life support or by Siren's own hands. Maybe both.

Wren got to the docks and found his friends clustered out the front of the Landale, nervous and anxious like a pack of little lambs. They were worried that if they got inside the Landale would send them away and Wren would not be able to follow them, but if they stayed where they were for much longer they'd run out of air. The temperature had dropped pretty low too, evident by the way that their breath fogged up visibly at every exhalation.

They looked terrible, as well they should after such a sudden scare in the middle of the night. Rune and company were still very tired from the busy day yesterday. They had scarcely gotten three hours of sleep and they thought it would have been better if they had never slept at all, at least then they wouldn't have felt so cheated of their repose. Rune himself looked like crap. As Wren ran along the ramp to the Landale Demi fought her way to the head of the small crowd. "We thought you weren't going to come!" She exclaimed. "What is going on? What's the situation?"

"I said I would come and so I have." Wren replied seriously, but he spoke quickly as he was in a hurry to explain. They were practically out of time. It was so foolish of them to wait out here while they were still in danger. "I was unable to reactivate the life support system. You cannot stay out here any longer. Please get inside the Landale, Siren could potentially be anywhere now." He reached over Rika's shoulder and opened the airlock using the small control panel upon the hull.

The palmans, numan and dezorian could just about _feel_ the sweet nourishing air wafting out from inside the ship, thick and wonderful when compared to the thin unwholesome stuff they were inhaling now. It made them feel lightheaded and a little weak. "Where are you going to take the ship?" Chaz asked as he nursed his burn, getting ready to lead Rika inside. Beside him Rune was frowning, his eyes closed.

He had already made his mind up about that. "I will not take the Landale anywhere. That will be Demi's task. I am going to stay here and deal with Siren. Zelan is too important to be jeopardized. Now all of you please get inside."

Rune leaned over and whispered something very quietly into Hahn's ear. His face was grim and Hahn looked very anxious, but as Rune whispered the historian went from looked anxious to downright scared. Paling, his hand went to his belt and remained there, nice and still. Hahn kept a firm eye on Wren as Demi began her protest most vehement.

"Master! You said you would come with us!"

"I said nothing of the sort. Check your memory. I said only that I would meet you here." This definitely wasn't the time for an argument. Technically he was correct, but Demi looked like a puppy that had just been kicked. Wren was hardly capable of feeling bad for her, he was thinking only of neutralizing the danger while keeping his friends well away from it.

The Lutz whispered another word or two to Hahn as Demi clasped her hands together. "But what if he ends up destroying you? I saw what he looked like. He's frightening. Even _Rune_ was matched when he started casting spells! Master, forgive my impertinence, but I don't think you can win against him alone."

Demi did not yet know it but her little plea to her master was probably going to save his life and maybe even the lives of some of her other friends. For as Wren opened his mouth to answer her he knelt down slightly, a habitual movement for talking seriously to the short android girl, and gave Rune and Hahn exactly the opening they were looking for. The historian's hand moved from his belt in a practiced flash of motion, the quick gleam of a piece of mahlay alloy the only indication that something had been in his palm.

It flew over Wren's head and stopped suddenly, stationary, floating in midair. Half of the knife blade had completely disappeared. Hahn had not been blowing hot air when he said he had been in constant physical training, the speed in which he had drawn the knife and the accuracy in which he had thrown it, even without a visible target spoke for itself. Everybody turned to look at Hahn, him and his magical levitating knife.

Rune crossed his arms and smiled haughtily. "You think that you can hide yourself in every way, Siren, but one esper _cannot_ hide from another. I always knew you were there, hiding as Wren's shadow."

Siren appeared in a shimmering of invisibility and yanked the medium-sized knife out of his throat. He did it angrily, fiercely, not caring if he wound up injuring himself further. He had spent too much time thinking about the senses of the machine instead of the senses of the magician. It was a mistake that he would pay for. Every second was precious, he needed to use it well. Rather than boast, insult or threaten Siren shifted the knife properly in his grip and lunged at the most vulnerable target closest to him, letting out a short shout of aggression.

Wren could hardly believe he had been stalked in that way. He might have been only a few seconds away from being killed. As Siren darted forward and raised the knife Hahn had given him he had to pass by Wren, and as he did so Wren involuntarily pulled the oldest trick in the book. He hadn't _meant_ to do it, some program in the back of his mind just suddenly activated. He stuck out his foot.

And Rika had been prepared to defend herself against whatever came at her, armed or no, but it was not necessary. He came at her as if to stab her but tripped at the last moment, leaning forward, then Wren brought his free arm up and jammed his elbow into the small of his back. Siren fell. This was the break they needed. "Everyone into the Landale!" He ordered, stepping over the red-haired android to approach the entry hatch.

"C'mon." Rune agreed and was the first one inside, followed by Raja and Hahn. They had waited long enough anyway. Rika took Chaz with her as she fled, nearly yanking the youth's arm from the shoulder socket in the process. Demi turned her head to watch them go but she did not know if she could follow. Somehow she felt that she'd be betraying her master if she left, even though she would disobey his explicit order if she stayed.

"Demi," Wren said, and now he was beginning to sound annoyed, "_leave_."

It was like a slap in the face. Somebody needed to pilot the Landale and that somebody had to be her. Wren had activated the timed lock to the ships' door so after it was sealed the next time it would open was three hours. She couldn't come back to help him after that, but it was okay because he didn't want her here. "Yes sir." She said and turned to follow the others.

Siren grabbed her before she could leave. His hand shot out and clamped down on her wrist with the power of a vice, pulling her against his own body as he climbed to his feet. Demi cried out in surprise and tried to pull herself away. She was scared of this evil mockery of her own master, absolutely terrified. Siren must have picked up on that too but in truth he had only grabbed her because she was the easiest one to reach. "Let me go!" She cried, horrified.

The android just couldn't stay down for long. If they were going to get away then it would not be without a price. The little girl was easy to hold on to, she was very weak compared to his own great strength. This was another traitor to her race and she deserved death just as much as the others, maybe even more so. They as layans did not have a choice of their birthright, but the renegade servants of Orakio had had a choice in their fealty and they had chosen evil. Siren could kill her now as an example of the retribution yet to come.

Wren took Demi's other hand as she reached out for him desperately, a silent cry for help. For a moment or so it looked like a comical tug of war was going to begin between the two wren-types, with Demi the line in-between. She tried to yank her hand out of Siren's grip a second time, frantically thinking that she should spark the scary siren before he could spark _her_. It would work well, only that with their hands joined the electrical surge would run through Wren as well and severely injure him.

"Let her go." Wren said and glared at Siren, at the android wounded with his chance of killing slipping away from him. He could incapacitate Siren now and put this little crisis to a swift end, yet that meant doing the very same thing to Demi and he couldn't bring himself to consider that. Siren saw that he had the upper hand now. He didn't care who he killed. He smiled. Wren didn't like that look, but what he liked even less was the gathering electrical charge building up in Siren's hand encircling Demi's wrist.

Demi felt the increased charge and tried not to panic. She twisted in Siren's grip and finally faced him, looking him in the eyes. Previously she had hidden from him, either by hiding behind Rune or averting her gaze. Demi had just been scared of him which was understandable in the circumstance. Siren had not really gotten a very good look at her either, he could tell she was a little female android and that was about it. She wasn't very important in his plans for vengeance. Because she was so small Siren hadn't even seen her face. He saw it now, the light green hair, the lighter green eyes, and the strange-looking red mark upon her forehead.

And the most unlikely thing happened. Nobody ever could have guessed it.

He _recognised_ her.

"Le Cille." He said, astonished.

Siren released her. He hadn't intended to but he had just been so surprised. It was more than surprise, it was horror, mortification, disbelief. He didn't know how to handle it. Wren saw his chance and took it without a second thought. He raised his gun-arm and struck Siren as hard as his could across the face with the barrel of his weapon, then he grabbed Demi and lifted her clear off her feet as if she weighed nothing at all. He held her in the crook of one arm and retreated soon after, heading into the Landale with the hatch closing behind them like the swift blade of a guillotine.

He snapped out of it a second after it was too late. Recovering from the blow Siren charged the closing door but his hands hit the metal of the outer hull. "No!" He shouted angrily, pounding the barrier which separated him from his kill with his fists. That damned android and his little friend! They had ruined his plan! He took some steps back and shot a few times at the ship, but it was useless. The Landale was designed specifically for withstanding great heat, the heat of reentering the atmosphere of a planet.

The girl was a Le Cille. That made no sense. The Le Cille clan were the purest and wickedest bloodline of the layans that had ever existed. They were the mortal enemy of the Sa Ruik clan, but he had just seen a former servant of Sa Ruik in the form of a Le Cille. It did not compute. It was impossible. Siren did not understand.

It, or more correctly, _she_ was destined to become the object of his obsession in the long dark times that were to come.

†††

When the door clanged shut behind him and the timer activated Wren realised that he had just screwed himself over. There was no way he could reclaim Zelan now. Demi's little arms were wrapped around his neck and she had her face buried in his shoulder. Siren had really frightened her and Wren wouldn't be able to pull her away even if he tried. His friends were in the hallway waiting for him, Rune at the front as he had somehow become their unofficial leader. The magician ran a hand through his long messy hair tiredly.

"Let's get out of here." He breathed. In about a minute all the air on Zelan would be gone. There was no point hanging around an area they couldn't reclaim. The only thing that Rune wanted to reclaim right now was a nice _safe_ bed. Chaz had his hands on Rika's shoulders and Rika was holding her elbows protectively. Hahn and Raja seemed like the only ones who were okay now, Hahn having used up all his fear after flinging the knife at Siren and Raja was practically impervious to such things.

"I cannot leave Zelan behind. I have sworn to defend it at all costs." Wren argued wearily, his argument redundant because he could not go back even if he wanted to.

"You've left it before." Rune reasoned softly. They could hear faint rumbles from the outside of the ship, Siren shooting at the Landale in frustration and in an eager bid to blast a way inside. "Look, we're not abandoning anything but we need to get out of here before that crazy bastard puts an open-air balcony in the side of the ship, 'open-air' being purely a figure of speech."

"This is true. I will proceed to the bridge and take the Landale into safe space. I doubt that Siren will follow us. He has something more valuable than a few meager kills." Wren said as he gently set Demi down and was relieved when she let go of him. The android wanted to do the exact opposite of what he was saying but that choice was out of his hands now. He brushed through the crowd of his friends and acted like leaving his duty didn't bother him at all.

"Something more valuable? What's that?" Chaz asked in a hesitant voice.

Rune snorted. "Isn't it obvious? He won the castle siege. He now has a base."


	12. Better the Devil You Know

The Landale flew aimlessly through the dark without direction, without destination. An hour had passed since they had been forced to pack up and leave the space station in a hurry, and Zelan was now only a bright little speck in the sky amidst all the other stars and assorted lights. They were safe now and pretty much okay, but at what cost?

Chaz groaned as Rika and Hahn held him down firmly in the metal chair. They were preventing him from flinching away as Raja inspected his burned shoulder and arm carefully. Poor Chaz had been the only one during the exodus to be wounded by Siren, and even though the shot had only grazed him it was strong enough to inflict some serious harm. Fortunately Chaz was surrounded by at least three people skilled in the art of healing wounds.

"Too bad you weren't wearing armor, it would have repelled most of the fire." Raja observed as he peeled away the burnt strip of cloth to the seared red flesh underneath. Part of Chaz's skin had blistered immediately, another part had just gone black and disgusting. The dezorian priest nodded to the people holding Chaz down in warning and applied a gentle pressure to the injury to measure its severity. The hunter jerked reflexively and tried to leap out of the chair, grunting in pain.

"Don't worry. Like beauty, this wound is only skin-deep. I'll run a gires through it and patch it up with some bandages. He should be able to sleep on this side again in just under a week. There's nothing beautiful about this ugly wound!" Raja laughed in his characteristic way and patted Chaz fondly on the shoulder. The boy flinched again and shot him a dirty look. "Do we have a first aid kit around here I can use?"

"Hold on, I'll go get it." Hahn volunteered and got up off his knees with a spring in his step, releasing Chaz's free arm from the armrest. The hunter immediately reached over and tried to grab the wound in pain, but Raja snatched his wrist in an iron wiry grip and held it tight. He spoke a few quiet words under his breath and numbness flowed down Chaz's arm and into his body, diluting like a coloured dye in water. They could see no sudden, physical improvement in his injury but that would change in time. Right now all Chaz really needed was quick relief.

Hahn returned shortly after Chaz had calmed down and together with Raja they dressed and bandaged up the young hunter. Rika did not need to do anything more than hold Chaz's hand. The young man looked towards the girl with a weary yet relived grin. "That was really close. For a while back there I was honestly starting to believe we might not make it in time. It would have been the stupidest ending ever, to go through all that we did with the darkness only to be killed by some crazy android in space. I'm glad that you're okay, honey."

"I'm glad you're okay, too." Rika replied and put her arms around Chaz gently, trying not to come in contact with the burn or hinder her friends who were working on him. It proved to be a slightly difficult task, but she managed. Even with one arm Chaz still had a good firm hug. Light, if there had only been a second's difference in what had happened Siren could have killed Chaz instead of only grazing him. Then what would she have done? "I love you, Chaz.."

"Love you too, Ri-ah! Don't bandage so tightly!" The hunter began as lovingly as he could only to be cut off by his own short shout of pain. Rika immediately released him from the hug in case that cry had anything to do with her. Chaz glared death at Raja once more, about to pin the bandage up and call it a day. "What's your problem?" He winced.

"Any more sweet talk from you lot and Hahn and I will wind up with cavities!" Raja laughed and let go, Chaz pulling his arm back into the sleeve of his burnt shirt and jacket. Thankfully the wound was mostly a burn so it would not bleed. The old dezorian got up off the floor and dusted his knees in a habitual manner, even though the floor of the Landale was far from dusty.

Hahn packed up the first-aid kit on his own because it seemed like Raja wasn't going to be bothered, brushing aside his long brown plait that got in the way whenever he bent over. He felt like he was the only one worried about where they were going and what they had left behind. Zelan was important to the two worlds, instrumental to their function, and they had left it all to Siren. What could they do next? All Hahn really wanted was to go home to his wife. He had come to help, not to be run out like some kind of criminal.

The door to the infirmary glided open and Demi appeared, timidly standing out in the hallway. She still seemed a little shaken up by what had happened earlier, but she had pulled it together enough to be functional once more. Siren had scared her like nobody else had, so much that she was afraid to be on her own. She would stay with Wren if that were possible, but she was afraid that he might be angry with her for causing a mess. "Hello, may I come in?" She asked politely.

"Of course, you don't have to ask, Demi. Come on in." Rika replied and beckoned to the little android girl, holding the tear in her dress together with one spare hand. She stepped inside and went straight toward her friends, or more accurately towards Rika who was at her own height by sitting on the floor.

"Is Chaz okay?" Demi looked to the blond palman with concern.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I've been hit by far worse blasts. It reminded me of Lassic and his servants, actually." Chaz smiled bravely. Of course, the difference was that he had been fitter and outfitted in specially resistant armor back then. "They were strong. It doesn't make much sense, a wren with magical abilities. Next we'll see our own Wren pulling rabbits out of a hat or something. I can understand why Rune was so edgy about Siren and his esper spells."

"Rune is up at the bridge with Master Wren. I think they are trying to figure out our next destination." Demi fidgeted slightly as she looked to the side. "Didn't Siren look _just_ like Master Wren? They could have been brothers were they palmans. I know the wren series was a rather generic production model in the past but I have never had to deal with more than one at a time before. Do you think Master is angry with me for forcing him to come with us? If it were not for my hesitation he would still be on Zelan."

"Wren made a decision to come with us when he grabbed you. It was his choice, not yours, so he has no reason to be angry with you. Siren wasn't your fault either, Demi." Rika explained. If anything she should feel happy that Wren had elected to abandon Zelan for the sake of his servant. It was almost a palman error. Now that they were all together again just like three years ago things felt like they reverting back to normal. It was like the years of separation had never even taken place.

"I know, but I just can't shake the feeling that I have allowed something terrible to happen." Demi raised a hand to her face and lightly touched the small red mark upon her forehead, the mark which had startled Siren so. She did not know the reason why that had happened but felt it was extremely important to find out. "What is a Le Cille? Siren looked like he had seen a ghost when he said that. I am not a ghost."

Chaz and Raja wore blankly clueless faces to the question while Hahn and Rika honestly appeared to think about it. "Le Cille… it's not really common english, is it? It sounds like a derivative of ancient palmatin dialect, which probably wouldn't be surprising when you consider how old Siren must be. They had an ancient palmatin language course at the academy but I, er, never took it." Hahn admitted with an apologetic shrug.

"It sounds familiar. Le Cille, not the word itself but the structure of the word." Rika mused for a few quiet moments, then her eyes lit up as realization dawned on her. Her eyes now seemed to sparkle happily. "Of course! I learned about the basics back in Birth Valley! Chaz, do you remember Rykros and the beings that we met there? Sa Lews? De Vars? Le Roof? It's a name! Siren was addressing you with that name! Is your name 'Le Cille' in ancient palmatin, Demi?"

Demi shook her head. "I don't think so. I have always just been known as 'Demi', no number, never anything else. I'm the only Demi that ever was and ever will be. Siren shouldn't know who I am, shouldn't know anything about me. I suppose it isn't important. All that matters is figuring out where we should go from here."

"That doesn't really matter as long as we can go back to Zelan and reclaim it from Siren. What we need are weapons, armor, equipment and some rest. Then we need to figure out how to get back aboard Zelan without the atmosphere killing us. The place is just like that blue satellite now, untouchable and dead." Chaz observed grimly, then brightened up again. "You guys are all welcome to stay at our place in Aiedo until we can get everything figured out. It's big enough for everyone."

"Yeah, I am greatly looking forward to sleeping on your floor again." Hahn commented dryly as he snapped the lid of the first-aid kit firmly closed. From Aiedo Krup was _so_ close, but just far away enough to make travelling there impractical. It was a shame. "Lets move to the bridge and stop Rune and Wren from taking us to Tyler or Kuran, or whatever."

"What's wrong with Tyler?" Raja asked, defensive of his own planet while everybody started to get up and file out of the makeshift infirmary. "What's wrong with the Tyler basin? It's the greatest place in Algo! It's got my temple, Gyuna's bar and grill, drinks for only two meseta each, a spaceport, hey, I could go on forever…" He listed as he followed his friends, counting every little thing on one of his long green fingers, his prattle a consistent drone to which nobody listened.

†††

"You're going to have to say something eventually." Rune intoned as he leaned against the cool hull of the Landale, his arms folded stoically. "You can't just clam up and pretend that losing Zelan never happened. Talk to me, Wren. Where the hell are you taking us?"

Wren was sitting in the pilot's seat and staring blankly at the main screen and controls, yet he hadn't said a word since he had sent the ship out into open space. The muteness was unnerving because although Wren was a quiet individual he would always speak when spoken to. Being ignored by a machine was _not_ something Rune embraced and enjoyed. "What would you like me to say? We have no current destination." He said at last.

He had uttered this emotionlessly yet Rune could still sense a dull, bitter anger in Wren. The android wasn't quite sure how to deal with it properly so he had basically shut that part of himself down. Rune knew that the healthiest way to expel anger was to yell and possibly break something, but he doubted Wren would support anything like that. "Let's go back to Motavia. Most of our friends live there, we might as well go to a place where they'll feel at home."

"Roger." Wren said lifelessly and adjusted their course according to Rune's wishes.

The esper yawned. He was so tired he felt like he could just drop dead then and there. Any brief sleep that he had gotten on Zelan was negated by the energy taken to cast those spells at Siren. He could sleep for days, for even a week maybe. Rune slowly knelt down and sat on the floor of the flight deck, wrapping his white cloak around himself like a blanket. He wanted to sleep, but he could not for as long as their party remained scared and confused. He could rest his eyes however, just a little…

"Rune, may I ask you a question?" Wren inquired gently as he closed the auto-map system after a brief navigational check. They would reach the atmosphere of Motavia in close to an hour and a half. Zelan was far behind them and Siren with it.

The magician opened one eye for a moment and stretched slightly, working the stiffness out of his shoulders. "Yeah, what is it?" He asked. Rune was far from being a sympathetic ear but at least Wren was talking of his own volition again.

"Where exactly was the Lutz when the Collapse Wars were ravaging Motavia? Why didn't he do anything to aid the war effort?" Wren questioned simply.

Rune looked at him in surprise. He hadn't been expecting a question like that. It certainly woke him up some and the esper had to clear his mind and his throat to think. It was a very delicate issue and a seemingly cruel choice had been made. Rune knew he had nothing to do with it personally, for he had not been born until a thousand years later, but he still felt the Lutz's guilt as his own.

"Eh… it's hard to say. I could tell you where he was and what he was doing but it doesn't colour him in a very good light. Lutz went back to Dezoris after the collapse of Palma and did nothing for a time. Motavia wasn't the Lutz's business and he couldn't meddle personally in the affairs of the war. If he took a side and fought for that side's ideal and view of life then he would be advocating one thing and condemning another. The Lutz must remain unbiased and attuned to the Light. Besides, other espers went down to Motavia and fought in the wars themselves, so you can't say that the espers did absolutely nothing."

"Yes, I remember. The Le Cille clan did indeed choose a side and fought ruthlessly with their esper spells. They were the rebel faction's most adept soldiers." Wren went quiet for nearly five minutes. Rune realised that the android was about to go somewhere with this, somewhere important. It sounded like he was suggesting he was physically _present_ during those wars. "…I killed many of the Le Cille clan in the name of the Motavian government."

"So you chose a side, huh?" Rune stated tonelessly. It shouldn't have bothered him but it did, Wren admitting that he had actually _killed_ espers before. It had been so long ago but the Lutz from that time would have been horrified, saddened, and furious. Rune briefly fleshed back to the ancient battlefield on Azura, where espers and androids had clashed and fallen. Everything kept on coming back to that one, general conflict. It was eerie.

"It was not a choice. I was created for the sole purpose of becoming a soldier and wiping out the rebel resistance factions. All that I have now, Demi, Zelan and my current purpose, it all came after I fulfilled my duty in the war. It was such a long time ago." Wren wasn't quite sure of the exact reason why he was telling Rune all this; there were multiple reasons.

It was Siren recognizing Demi's uncanny likeness to a member of the Le Cille clan, how they had severed their connection to the Esper Mansion by painting that red mark upon their faces and heading out into battle. It was Siren openly declaring his allegiance to the Sa Ruik clan, a different faction of the Collapse War rebels who were no less deadly than their esper counterparts. Last of all, it was from a vague sense of guilt that he had never let himself feel before, from the origin of the Waizz Star and the dead android to that it had belonged. They were all connected somehow, in some way, he just could not see it.

After all, these three references to the past had come to meet one another at exactly the same time. Rune knew that there must have been a reason why an android like Wren, who could be equipped in such a way as to destroy an entire space station in one attack had been given a maintenance job instead of what he had been built for. His purpose, his life in the present had only come about through his successful career as a soldier. "Did you have a rank?" Rune found himself asking.

"Low enough not to have any control of the direction of the war, high enough that I had a great many lives at my command. I am telling you this because I suspect that although Siren was present on the Alisa Three for the duration of the conflict he has an intimate knowledge of the rebel faction from the Collapse Wars. There is certainly a relevancy in that somewhere."

"And because you need to keep focussing on things even when you lose something that's important. That's what I had to do when I lost Alys to the darkness, focus all my anger, grief and hate directly toward Zio. We'll get Zelan back. Siren's just one person and we're _several_ people. We outnumber him and prepared with weapons we can be just as tough as we used to be when we fought against the darkness."

Rune yawned again, muffling it with a hand. "High enough to boss people around, hm? There wasn't like an age barrier to being an officer?" Wren didn't answer, but Rune calculated that he must have been only a year or two, given the time when the war began and concluded.

"It was a long time ago." Wren repeated after a while, when both he and Rune began to hear the echoes of footsteps coming down the bridge's hall, and Raja's raised voice that only a priest used to giving loud sermons could reproduce. Before they could enter Wren said one last thing privately to Rune, because unlike the others Rune was still deeply connected to the past. That was very common ground to him.

"This feeling that I've had, that we all have, it is not just from the Alisa Three. The Alisa Three may only be the beginning, I fear."

"Let's just focus on getting back to Motavia." Rune gave in, eager to change the subject. "It's not healthy to bottle up anger. You remember Chaz and his megido technique, right? It's best to get rid of anger before it becomes toxic."

"Perhaps later." Wren said.

†††

Siren was left standing alone in the halls of Zelan, the space station now as dead and as empty of life as a stone mausoleum. No living things which required oxygen to breathe could survive in there. If the layans had left any of their own behind they had certainly left them to experience a very painful death, but Siren knew that the entire space station was empty. The cowardly fools had bequeathed the entire place to him. What a lovely gift.

He could tell that Zelan held some kind of deep importance to the layans, or else they would have occupied any number of the other stations floating out there in Algo's space. The android wasn't aware that only Zelan and Kuran remained, to him everything was still a thousand years in the past. Zelan was his now, he had won it from the blue-haired layan. If Siren could not have the layans dead and suffocated at his feet then their base was quite a nice consolation prize. He could keep it or destroy it, it was all up to him.

He needed a little time to think about that. Siren took up his heavy weapon and walked out of the spaceship docks, leaving the other two dozen or so ships behind. The layans had taken the biggest and grandest ship in the hangar away with them, but the other ships were nothing to be ashamed of either. Perhaps he could think of a good use for them later. Siren stalked back to the main control area and accessed one of Zelan's many computers, finding his little password still there and flashing demandingly on the screen.

Siren smiled nastily. So the airheaded Forren had been unable to crack his code. It had been so _simple_, any layan with half a brain in their heads could have figured it out. He had specifically made the password rather easy so that he could test just how intelligent those fools seemed to be. The Forren had failed miserably, even going insofar as to utilize password cracking programs to guess the code. In the end all Forren had managed to do was ruin Siren's armor and that was easily replaceable.

Still smiling, Siren leaned over the controls and hit four keys on the keyboard, unlocking the life-support system for his usage. If the layans came back then he would turn it on again for a truly deserving welcome. The wren-type sat at the controls and browsed the layout of Zelan's computers for a while, absorbing as much data regarding the station as he could. Some of the information was readily accessible while the most relevant files asked for a Zelan worker ID code. Another password, but this time not his own.

It did not perturb him. There were other ways around that which did not require blind guesswork. From what he could gather with the free information this Zelan space station was a climate control center for the two remaining planets, Motavia and Dezoris. Along with controlling the weather and climate in moderation Zelan also monitored and audited its own progress. No wonder the layans seemed to have valued this castle so, it was the life-support for the entire Algo system; its heart.

Siren gleaned the year, the month, the date and the time. It caused him to pause and appear mildly surprised. Had Kay Eshyr and Le Cille really kept him in cryogenic sleep for _that_ long? He supposed that they had. How they must have laughed, he fumed, knowing that they could commit any foul deed they wanted without fear of Orakian retribution. They had locked up Siren, Orakio's last faithful vassal and now they were safe and free to worship their Dark Force. Well, not anymore.

All that was left of Palma was a thin rocky asteroid belt. Siren had been evacuated along with many palmans and androids to the worldships when the planet had blown. It was a thousand years later and no effort had been made to clear up the mess. Nobody willing to give a damn seemed to be left. Algo was perpetuating its long slow crawl into the pit of oblivion. Siren needed to get deeper into Zelan, get by that ID code and take the space station into his own worthy hands.

He leant back into his chair and closed his eyes, intending to rest for just a little while. It didn't matter whether he was an android or not, for as long as he burned up mental energy by focussing and casting esper spells Siren was bound to tire. He never required normal sleep unless he had been flaunting his magical powers. Siren slipped away and slept for a brief hour or two, and while he did this the Landale drew closer and closer to Motavia. It was a few hours before dawn when Siren awoke again, and he awoke with the rough blueprint of a plan in mind.

No living soul could exist on Zelan while Siren had the life-support system under his control. This did not include those on Zelan who technically were not alive. He had seen it himself, the vast storage area at the back of the station filled with dead and damaged androids, spare parts and tools. They could not _all_ be broken beyond repair, with his skill and talents in machinery what was broken could quickly be revived.

He required new servants anyway. Those few robots he had reanimated on Azura were just a test, just the beginning of his great skill. If he could find an android with access to Zelan's protected data files he would have something substantial to start with. Besides, Siren had never been a simple worker or drone, he had always held proudly his honor as a leader and a master in his own right. He had only served his Lord Orakio faithfully and the swordsman had always treated him no less than an equal. He needed servants to command, like the old days.

Once more he wandered the hallways of Zelan on his own, only this time he need not fear being spotted. His cloaking device required maitenance after the thrashing that Rune's tandle had given it, but he would fix it later. Siren didn't need it right now anyway. The storage area was a lot like a prison, with lettered blocks categorizing the dead androids and sectioning them away into tiny secure cells.

Sometimes an android wouldn't stay dead. Sometimes they would try to fight back, so they would have to be held down and restrained while their operating systems were removed. In the past it was common knowledge that androids had a five times more likely chance to go crazy or commit suicide. Could you blame them? Fortunately, they were _also_ five times more disposable than their relative palman counterparts. With Mother Brain around they could always just make more.

Siren decided to start from block A and work his way down the alphabet from there. He had explored those hallways already but he had not actually looked inside the cells. It would be disrespectful without a purpose, like a palman wantonly pulling open drawers in a mortuary only because they desired to see what the corpses within looked like. He wanted to find the perfect servant, and with a hundred cells to a block he would definitely not be lacking in choice and variety.

The slow, tedious search began. He'd go into a cell, poke around for a few moments and if the machine inside didn't appear promising then he would move on to a different room. Block A was stocked with androids and robots which appeared to have died of natural causes or the passage of time. Parts of them had burnt out from overuse or they had just given up the cybernetic ghost when their expiration dates had come to pass. Most of the cellmates from block A were cheap mindless drones, whistles and worker pods and piles of mismatched garbage.

By cell ten he had only discovered one moderately sophisticated android, a small Lou-type who had been partially dismantled. At least half of her parts were missing and the parts which still remained were utterly trashed. Siren probably could fix her with the right tools and parts, but it would take many hours of dedicated, diligent work. He moved on, but if he had to then he would come back.

The next few cells were uneventful and nothing really caught his eye. Cell nineteen was jammed shut and he'd have to actually tear the door down to get inside, and cell twenty five was so packed full of junk and various bits of machinery that stuff actually fell _out_ of the room onto Siren the moment he opened the door. He closed it in a hurry then continued, but all he found were more assorted robots with only a rudimentary AI program. Several more cells were entirely empty.

When he reached room thirty nine Siren found Mieus.

He knew there was something special about that cell even before he went inside. The doors had snapped closed against a thin strip of pink fabric, of the very same shade as the dress one of the evacuated layans were wearing. Siren recalled that the girl had been covering up a long rip in the shoulder. This meant that cell thirty nine had been visited recently by the layan scum. He pulled the cloth free of the door, inspecting it briefly before going inside.

Demi had laid Mieus out nicely again, so when Siren found her she was back into the position of looking like a sleeping maiden. The android identified her type immediately, back in his day the mieu type was just as common a production series as his own. Siren moved over to the metal table and inspected her body closely. She didn't seem to be damaged in any way; she was perfectly intact.

He put an arm behind her shoulders and lifted Mieus into a sitting position, checking her back for injuries. No, nothing. How strange. Why dump a perfectly functional android like this into a graveyard to be lost and forgotten? Her lifeless head rolled towards him and strands of red hair much like his own brushed against his arm. Actually she was rather beautiful, for a machine.

He then noticed the black choker band around her neck and realised why this mieu-type was unharmed. She was out of place for this block made of the lawful, sensible dead, she was wearing a slave collar and there was only one crime for that punishment. The layans had wanted to silence her, to render her into an artificial coma and pretend she was dead. Siren was intensely curious to discover the reason why, any scathing information against the layans would surely be a boon to his own quest.

He needed a servant and this android girl was the best specimen he had found so far. Holding her in his arms Siren didn't really want to put her down again and continue his search without figuring out her reason for being there. If this mieu was undamaged then it would also save him a lot of time and effort repairing her. Just something about the girl seemed… important.

"Awaken for me, Mieu." Siren murmured as he unclasped the slave collar from around her neck, placing the article of bondage down upon the table.

For several long expectant moments nothing happened. Siren waited patiently to witness a reaction in the girl. There was a chance that he might not see a reaction at all, she might very well be dead even without the collar holding her captive. She could be burnt out just like all the other machines in block A, which would justify her presence here. Still, Siren anticipated a response.

Abruptly the girl jerked in his grip, a full-body twitch that was just like her first inhalation of breath. She opened her eyes for the second time in almost twenty four hours. She stared indiscriminately, then her eyes focussed upon Siren. He had his guard up and he was prepared, sometimes when an android was deactivated for so long their actions could be totally randomized or unpredictable. They could smile, they could laugh, cry, or start screaming. On some occasions they could also become incredibly violent. Siren let go of her soft body and was secretly pleased to see that she could sit up on her own.

The mieu-type drew her legs up closer to her body and pressed her arms against her chest, compacting herself into a little ball or more importantly coiling herself like a spring. "You…" She whispered softly. She was conscious, she was speaking, but Siren noted in her response that she somehow seemed to _identify_ him. "You…"

"You _bastard_!"

Her hands suddenly became claws and she leapt at him with all the ferocity of an angry tigress. She went straight for his face with an unbridled scream, if Siren hadn't already been on guard she could have easily ripped his face right off. He raised an arm in defense and Mieus flew right into it, and before her claws could come up to slash away at him he applied sharp pressure to her breast and roughly shoved her away. Her claws scratched at his armor-clad arms as she squealed in rage and slid off the table, falling down onto the floor.

She was on the ground for only a nanosecond and then she stood, tall and proud. Her balance seemed perfect and her face was contorted in petulant indignation. Mieus sidestepped around the table and went for Siren again at his left, avoiding the nasty looking weapon he was carrying at his right. Her long titanium claws gleamed coldly as she dug them into his compromised metal armor, ripping a good portion of it away. "I won't let you kill me, you bastard!" She shrieked as she yanked her claws out of his side.

Mieus' claws would surely make quick work out of a palman or any other fleshy individual, but to the wren-type it was like being scratched by an agitated kitten. It hurt and it did some small damage, left some marks behind, but it was far from being a serious injury. Siren didn't know what she was talking about, she was obviously confused. He could understand that but she needed to stop hurting him or else he'd have to classify her as an enemy. "Stop." He said sternly and grabbed her around the neck, squeezing until she acknowledged his request.

The pressure around her neck just reminded the girl of where that slave collar used to be. She felt Siren lift her off her feet until they were looking at one another, face to face. Mieus withdrew her claws and used her hands to grapple with the bigger android's wrist, unable to free herself under her own power. "Grandfather, please! Don't kill me!" She ground out, still trapped in her own version of the past.

"I am not your anything." Siren replied icily, holding her firm. Mieus' shoulders were extremely tense as she fought him with her dwindling power. "Listen to me. You have been sleeping for a very long time. If you are not broken then I suggest you cease attacking me, or I will snap your neck. Please calm down."

Mieus glared at him again, but then she paused and appeared to do a double-take. Her arms went slack, she dropped them down to her sides and her dark blue eyes went wide. Her blurred vision from extensive deactivation was beginning to clear and now she could see that the android she had _thought_ was grabbing her was actually somebody else. They looked so similar, but the colour of his hair was a dead giveaway. The girl was hit by a sudden wave of dizziness. "You're not… who are you?" She gasped.

She seemed to have calmed down somewhat so Siren released her. If she attacked again then he would simply grab the slave collar off the table and put her back into a deep sleep. He guessed that that was what she feared most of all. With nothing to hold her up Mieus fell ungracefully to the floor. She stayed down this time, brushing aside her long hair and glancing up at Siren. "My name is Siren of the order of Sa Ruik. Please identify yourself. Are you a servant of Orakio or Laya?"

The android girl touched the cold floor, then her folded knees, then her face, like she could hardly believe she was there. The disorientation made it difficult to reply. Siren was patient with her because he could understand what extensive deactivation felt like. "I am… uh, I am… I can't remember. There's something wrong with me."

"The slave collar can affect memory if it is used too liberally. You must also be running at a rather low capacity. Just remain calm and the information should return to you. Here." Siren knelt down and picked the girl up off the floor, putting one arm beneath her legs with the other grasping her shoulders. She was rather light for a machine, and did not fight him as he gently set her back down on the table. Mieus edged away from him and stretched, testing her disused limbs.

"I thought you were somebody else. You look just like my grandfather. Sorry about attacking you. I was confused." Mieus said groggily. "The last thing I remember I was being attacked, I was having an argument, so I… I had to defend myself somehow."

Under the hold of a slave collar any span of time, from hours to hundreds of years, could be compressed into a single second within the mind of the wearer. If Mieus had been silenced in combat then was only natural she would reactivate and assume she was still in that battle. "Are you a servant of Orakio or Laya?" He repeated persistently. Any other information was currently irrelevant; he just needed to know this.

Mieus bit her lip cutely, a weird habit that seemed to have no purpose. "I don't know. What are they supposed to be? Are they people? I've never served anybody before, I've just lived here on Zelan with my mother and grandfather. It was good until I left and Grandfather put me to sleep." She clenched her hands and some of her previous anger returned in force, like a young child that had been denied what she truly wanted. "He never listened to me, never believed a word I said. I hate him! I hope he dies!"

"It is very easy to throw an android away." Siren observed in a noncommittal kind of sympathy. "However, it is also very easy to bring an android back. You say that you lived on this space station? Do you have a worker ID code to access the mainframe's secure files? This is very important."

She shook her head in the negative. "No. I don't think so. I never had a job here so there was no reason to give me a code. I don't care about that boring stuff anyway. It's nothing to do with me." She confessed with relish.

"Then I have no use for you." Siren concluded, reaching for the slave collar left on the table. He didn't have time to talk to people who could not help him. As his hand closed around the apparatus Mieus slapped her own, smaller hand over his, holding it down. The wren-type looked back to her face, she genuinely seemed afraid.

"Don't do that. Please don't do that. I don't want to go back to sleep!" She quavered, lifting her hand from his, and all of a sudden Mieus lunged forward at Siren again, only instead of it being a violent attack she threw her arms around his broad shoulders and held onto him tightly. Siren didn't react quickly enough, before he knew it she was clinging to him in fear. "I'm not useless! I can prove it! I'll do anything for you, just don't make me go back to sleep! Nobody will ever try to wake me up again!"

"Like I said before, it is very easy to throw an android away. Why should I keep you? You have been discarded here for a reason." Siren answered her stonily, but nevertheless he reached up and awkwardly put his arms around her as well. Despite what he was saying this mieu-type would have use for as long as she functioned perfectly without aid. He wasn't totally without sympathy, to his fellow androids and to all Orakians he could be kind. For the first time in a thousand years Siren smiled without bitterness or malice. "Are you Layan or Orakian?" He questioned.

"What would you like me to be?" The girl finally said after a slight hesitation. She wasn't dumb, she knew where her best interests lay. She owed this android everything for bringing her back to life.

"Tell me you are Orakian and you may remain conscious. I am Siren, and I will not neglect or hurt you for as long as you serve me." He muttered, grasping and pulling her off his chest. When he had been searching for servants this was certainly _not_ what he had in mind, but it was different and it intrigued him. Mieus blinked slowly as she realised what she was committing herself to. To have a master. How exciting!

"I am an Orakian, Master Siren. Always have and always will be. Thank you so much for reviving me." She hopped off the table gracefully. Once she reached one hundred percent capacity she would be entirely herself again. The girl smiled brightly, beautifully at the wren-type. "My name is Mieus. I don't have a number. Let me follow you until you have no use for me anymore."

Siren took her hand. He was making excellent progress on his plans. He had yet to find an android with a workable ID code, but this was a start.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Mieus." He said.


	13. The Unknown Soldier

From that point on Siren and Mieus continued the search for the ID code together. The girl did not know much about Zelan and its functions but what she _did_ know was quite useful. Siren was under the impression that Mieus did not have a specific purpose for being alive, that she was some kind of pet android who had been spoiled and pampered until the result was obvious. When they stepped outside of her tiny cell Mieus seemed to be overwhelmed by the _everything_ that existed outside of her restrained world. She paused and stood in the threshold for a few moments, looking up and down the corridor with awe.

"Is something the matter, Mieus?" Siren asked coolly as he watched his new servant hesitate from coming out of her prison cell. She was like a little bird who had discovered the door to her cage open one day, but realized fear when she considered the boundless freedom now available to her. The cage was familiar, Siren and his offer of protection and purpose was not.

She could tell that Siren was making an effort to be patient with her, but if she tested that patience any further it would not last. Mieus checked her internal clock for the umpteenth time since coming into consciousness and calming down. "It's been twenty four years since they put me to sleep." She stated absently as she folded her arms. "Things might have changed since I was alive. I might not know where everything is now."

Twenty four years was a heartbeat when compared to the thousand years of cryogenic sleep under Siren's belt. In comparison it didn't really matter; time did not rate the measure of a person while unconscious. "I have already mapped the area of this space station. I want you to help me find another workable android bearing the knowledge that you lack. He or she must have reasonable intelligence and the willingness to become my servant. There are hundreds of cells to investigate and it will be quicker with some assistance. Come along, Mieus." He ordered.

"Yes Master." Mieus replied readily and lightly stepped towards the other android, taking her place at his side. Siren was about to lead the way and leave for the other cells when he halted suddenly, Mieus wrapping both her arms around his and clinging to his side like a young girl being taken for a date. She smiled cheekily. "Go ahead, I'll follow you. Let me tell you about myself while we walk, and you can tell me why you're here and why Zelan is so quiet."

Siren didn't feel very comfortable with Mieus clinging so close to him but he tolerated it silently. When he thought 'servant' this wasn't exactly what he had had in mind. "Very well." He said quietly and off they went, deeper into the graveyard that doubled as a prison.

The red-haired girl's history was very short, basic, and omitted of some personal details. She had been brought to life in the shell of a mieu-type on Motavia twenty seven years ago with no specific purpose in mind, but she had spent quite a lot of time alternating between Zelan and Nurvus. She spoke of how her mother had loved her so much and she had only been able to return that love fractionally and cluelessly, and how her grandfather had always dealt with her with a quiescent, grudging coldness.

One day she had gotten bored of the monotony in Nurvus, went for wander about the surface of the wasteland planet, and something had happened to her. Mieus became hesitant, with a sly smile from origins unknown as she recanted this. She would not say what that something was, only that it inevitably resulted in her shutdown and abandonment in the bowels of Zelan's graveyard. She seemed extremely bitter when it came to the concept of what had happened to her. It was fresh and bloody in her mind, much like how Siren felt about the layan scum who had put him in an unnatural sleep. In that sense they were more alike than he had initially guessed.

In turn, in his own neutral and impartial voice he told Mieus about the conflict between the Orakians and the Layans, about how the layans had chosen to worship a forbidden being known as Dark Force and how the orakians had risen up to stop them. The war had been short and furious aboard the Alisa Three and Dark Force was soon sealed away, but the layan servants of the deity still remained and ultimately Siren had been imprisoned before he could kill the rest.

All that was really clear to him was that as long as there were still layans in Algo there was always a chance Dark Force could come back. Black magicians could not be tolerated, _would_ not be tolerated as long as he were alive. As the last true servant of Orakio that was his duty. The last lot of people living on Zelan had been confirmed layans or layan sympathizers, so they had needed to go. Whether they came back or not didn't matter, Siren wanted Zelan running under his sole command so he could use it as his base.

Mieus was thrilled by Siren's story. Her grasp of history was vague at best because all the stuff she found boring she didn't care a whit about. She knew that there had been a huge war a very long time ago, but that was the thing; it had happened too far back to have any real relevance to her. They checked a few more cells in block A without much success because after all, the mindless robots that they found were more likely to lead quiet, meaningless lives before they fell into simple disrepair.

The long-haired girl guided Siren through block A and pulled him childishly through block B, sometimes walking and sometimes even dancing because she was so happy to be alive again. She listed the purpose and structure of the storage area with a hand, counting down one block for each slim little finger. Block A they had already been through and it was full of natural deaths and robots, block B was mostly empty and stored the individual spare parts and peripherals of dead androids for future use, sort of like an organ bank. Mieus was taking him to block C, her favorite place, the most interesting place of them all.

For block C certainly put the prisonish feeling back into the graveyard. It was home to androids who had succumbed to madness, suicide, or had been ordered into execution. Mieus' original resting place had been right here, resting in block C, although she did not know it. When she had been alive and living on Zelan happily she had spent many hours going over case files and crime reports, trying to understand why these machines had wound up like they had.

Why had they gone bad? Why did they kill themselves? She didn't care about them _personally_, but she cared about them in the same sense that a child would feel for a character in their storybook.

"You wish for me to revive a criminal?" Siren asked Mieus softly, slightly raising an eyebrow as he spoke. Block C seemed older and shabbier, less like a storage and more like a neglected mental institution. Siren may have had rather fundamentalist ways in which to deal with life but never had he knowingly broken the rules laid out by his master's race. Criminals weren't intelligent, weren't rational and logical, and it was their poor choices which had brought them here in the first place.

Mieus stood in the hallway with her arms folded, propping up her rather ample cleavage. They were in her storybook now, her dollhouse. "Think about it carefully for a moment, Master Siren." She said sweetly, enjoying the taste that the word 'master' left in her mouth. "There are many intelligent androids here who can be restored, as their lives were willfully cut short instead of just burning out and expiring. I've gone over every case file here in the past so I can lead you to exactly what you need. Finally, if you wish to kill layans for the evils they've committed what better servant can you have than a murderer?"

"Indiscriminate murder is not what I want. It solves nothing." Siren answered stonily, but he could see merit in her words. If they could revive a raving madman and extract the code from him without harm, then there was nothing stopping them from shutting him down again. If they could find a relatively sane criminal then that would just be an added bonus.

What Siren had just said ruffled Mieus' feathers a lot more than he realised. She huffed and tossed her long red hair over one shoulder. _He_ was one to talk for wanting to wipe out an entire race of people. "I'll lead you anywhere you'd like to go, Master, but I thought you'd want a servant crafty enough to warrant the death penalty." She also didn't want the next servant Siren found to outshine herself, either. She'd look like an angel when compared to a criminal.

"I will not argue with you. I care not about the requisition of the code, only that we can find it. Let's separate and search for a candidate. Come and get me if you find somebody suitable." The wren-type instructed impartially.

This greatly pleased Mieus. She smiled cheerily and half-bowed, half-curtsied to him. As she straightened up again she clapped her hands once in pleasure. Deep inside of her there was a kind of zeal reminiscent of Demi, her supposed mother. "I already have several units in mind!" She announced. "I'll bring you their case files once I go check up on them."

They split up. Siren took one side of the corridor while Mieus took the other. The older android could hear Mieus' excited footsteps as she darted from room to room. She was a good orakian girl, if a little oddly eccentric. Truth be told she reminded him all too much of his old partner Mium who had served with him by Orakio's side. Sometimes he found himself thinking about her, wondering where she might be now. It hadn't really consciously occurred to him that he missed her. It was too palman of an emotion, but it had manifested in his eagerness to reactivate Mieus.

The cells were slightly smaller in block C, barer, but the doors were a centimeter or so thicker to prevent escape. The inmates were usually left stretched out on a long metal table, and unlike the other blocks there lay beside the bodies a small handheld computer for each of them, like a tombstone. The first room Siren strode into contained a shirren android clamped down to the table, the half sized wren-type visible missing some of its parts. Siren picked up the computer and activated it, discovering that it was a tiny data storage device with a screen.

The computer contained personal details and a complete history of the dead android in question, including crime reports and a brief recording of an interrogation session. Siren wasn't particularly pleased with what he saw. This wren had gone a little loopy once his master had been killed in the Collapse Wars, and he had murdered a Paseo agent intent on wiping his memory and starting his AI from scratch again. Before the Motavia authorities could prosecute him properly he had killed himself. It all seemed so cowardly.

This shirren was nowhere near good enough to be his servant. Siren moved on. When he stepped out of the cell he could see that Mieus was already a good six cells ahead of him. She knew where everybody was and exactly what she was doing. She leaned against the wall momentarily and smirked. "So you've met old Weepy, huh? That's the funny thing about wren-types, they can be as emotive as any palman but after so many hundred of years of it they just give it up. Happened to my grandfather way before I was even thought up. Has that happened to you too, Master?"

He ignored her question. "Do you know who else is along this corridor?"

"Yeah. You've picked the side with the most suicides, and some of the cells are empty, but there are a few interesting cases. I used to give them names. There's the strangler, the sniper, the hacker, the traitor, and the unknown soldier. Then there are just a few dozen crazies and scumbags. Every scumbag is crazy, but not every crazy is a scumbag, if you get my meaning. " Mieus laid a finger on her chin as she remembered them, like old friends. In some way she felt like they _belonged_ to her.

"Mieus?"

"Yes Master?"

"Why don't you show me your most 'interesting' criminal?" Siren finally suggested. The girl seemed like she knew her way around here far better than he did. He had chosen her to be revived, now she could choose her own little doll to come back to life. Mieus was in many ways like a child despite her rather comely form. There was nothing wrong with spoiling a girl who was already rather spoilt, and she was the only real ally that he had.

Mieus cocked her head cutely for a moment, trying to decipher what he meant, but she got it easily and showed Siren a smile. He was giving the choice for the second servant to her. It was her one chance to reach into the history or the fiction of all the case reports she had loved to read and bring the person within those reports back to life. It was like giving a little girl the opportunity to turn her favorite toy from a dolly into a living being. "Of course. Let me show you the one!" She declared after a few moments of thought.

She took off down the corridor in a hurry and Siren followed her at his usual pace. Mieus looked like she knew exactly where she was going. About two dozen cells into block C she turned to one of the rooms and paused suddenly, a little surprised. The door had been jammed open. It certainly wasn't like that the last time she had been here. Was the android left inside still there? She had sort of had her figurative heart set on this one…

It was dark inside. The lights in there had stopped working, but Mieus could vaguely see a shadowy figure in the darkness without even having to switch on her night vision. How lucky, he was still there. Her toy soldier. "I've always liked this one a lot." Mieus confessed as Siren walked up to stand behind her. "He's a little bit of everything, instead of every extreme. The unknown soldier."

Siren wordlessly went inside, attended to the wall near the doorframe and lock and did something that Mieus couldn't see. There was a brief crackle of electricity and the lights popped back on, dimly. Siren removed his hand from the lighting circuit and turned to inspect the inmate of room three hundred and twenty three. It was what he had expected, but at the same time, it wasn't. "It is another wren-type." He murmured softly.

Unbeknownst to both Siren and Mieus, it was _also_ the original owner of the Waizz Star. The girl stood beside the dead shell and very gently ran her fingers through his short brown hair. "Yeah." She replied with pride. "He's a war hero and served for many years in that war we had a long time ago. The computer over there said he was a doctor before the war broke out. Honestly, I've always wanted to talk to him when he was alive, ask him why he did all the terrible things that he did. He's the only crazy scumbag here who doesn't seem," she searched her memory for the appropriate word, "…bad?"

She took the case files from off the metal table and offered it to her master. The girl had already read through the computer many, many times. "Please take a look at these. They're very interesting. If you think he'll make a good servant can we bring him back to life?"

"In a moment." Siren reassured her as he took the computer from her outstretched hand and immediately set it back down on the table again. He was a pragmatist and he wasn't going to get himself interested in a potential servant unless he was certain that servant could be revived. He gently nudged Mieus aside and took the other wren-type by the chin, lifting his head up so he could inspect his face. It wasn't a very pretty sight. A good third of the android's face had been blown away, by an old fashioned slug he reckoned, a single precise shot in the left eye.

There were no burn marks on his face so that ruled out an attack by a plasma or energy weapon. Honestly, if that had been the case there wouldn't have been much left of the android to store. Even a thousand years ago the Motavian government had only ever allowed metal slugs for one circumstance, for execution via a firing squad. But something was wrong, something was out of place. It caused Siren to pause in perplexity for a moment.

"Whoever it was that executed him didn't seem to know what they were doing. They were either very inept, or they actually _intended_ on reviving this wren someday." He commented quietly as he released the wren and inspected the rest of his armor and body. Fortunately due to the way he was dead sitting up instead of lying down it was easy to do. Mieus stood on her tiptoes and peeked over Siren's shoulder as he leant down to examine the wren's chest and side.

"What makes you say that?" Mieus inquired from behind. She couldn't tell, she had as much knowledge and skill regarding android repair as the average palman. What could he see that she couldn't see?

Siren straightened up and turned to look at his servant. She was watching him like she was expecting him to work a miracle, revive the android just as he had revived her. "Not many people know this," he began to explain as he gestured to the dead android's face, "but the core of a wren-type lies not in the head where the palman brain should be. When you consider how much space sensory equipment like optics and auditory sensors, the lingual unit and other such things take up it seems impractical to store the neural matrix in the head as well."

"There simply is not enough room. Roboticists were quite savvy during the time of Mother Brain but they could not miniaturize to the same degree that nature was capable of." His hand moved from the wren's face to a different area. "Instead, Mieus, where is the most reinforced and protected area on a wren series android?"

Mieus didn't even have to guess as he was already indicating to the area in question. It made sense. "It's in the chest, behind that coloured gem set in the armor?" The girl suddenly had a flash of wit and used it freely. "So you wren-types think with your hearts instead of your heads?" She giggled openly. It made sense when Siren explained it in that manner.

"Hardly." He replied. "Whoever it was who organized the execution must not have known this, or else they would have aimed for the chest rather than the face. You could completely decapitate a wren and they would not die unless their core was destroyed, and they would remain senseless and completely paralyzed. This unit here in addition to the wound has had approximately thirty five percent of its parts removed. Possibly its operating system too. It _can_ be repaired, but it will take many hours and plenty of materials."

"Should we find somebody else?" Mieus asked him. If the effort was greater than the reward it might be wiser to continue their search elsewhere. "I really _do_ like this one. If I'm going to have a partner to serve you with then I'd rather it be him." She placed her hands on the dead android's shoulders and gave him a loose hug. The appearance was oddly disturbing.

"Most standard android repairs take many hours. If you want this one so much then let us get to work on him. Mieus, I would like you to gather me some tools and assorted parts. I will dictate them to you and while you are gone I will prep him for surgery and examine the case files." After he issued the order Siren listed about a dozen tools and at least twenty five different spare parts. As he did this he took hold of the other wren's arms and laid him out carefully on the table.

"I don't know what half of those things are." The girl frowned as she reflected on the list recorded in her memory. The tools she had a good idea of, but the parts were a different story. She left anyway. Even if she couldn't find all the parts right away she had many hours to narrow everything down. Siren last saw her flying down the corridor on the way back to block B, trying not to not waste a second of her master's time.

And now he was alone again. Well, not really. He still had his new corpselike friend beside him to keep him company. Siren glanced at the machine for a moment, but until he could start the repair work the other wren was not so much a person as he was an object. His armor was an odd colour, a dark burnished gold instead of the usual steely silver. Siren assumed that as this unit was a soldier the colour of his armor denoted his military rank. Size, shape and design noted his series type too.

This wren was a warren-type. The light brown hair colour easily gave it away. Siren picked up the computer and casually switched it on, looking for the android's basic details. If any information in here made the repair process any easier then it was a worthy read, like about the parts this android once had which were now missing, possibly salvaged. Just because a unit had been killed it didn't mean that their spare parts should go to waste. Somebody else had already worked over this one long ago.

The basic details were as follows; _/ "Warren-type number six hundred and eighty three. Major Warren McCulloch of the third branch, general palman infantry. Enlisted in the year AW 1284. Transferred to medical field support after eighteen months, then a second transfer to Oputa surgical hospital approved six months later. Saw combat in Piata, Zema, Arima before and after the reclamation, and Paseo. Granted the Purple Heart in the spring of AW 1285 for the loss of limb. Granted the honor of the Waizz Star in the summer of AW 1288 for saving the life of Lieutenant-General Laidley. Received honorable discharge in AW 1289." /_

Ah, gold was the colour of a soldier bearing a major-rank. This first part was a brief history of this warren's military record. The unknown soldier indeed, he even had a surname. That was practically unheard of during the time of Mother Brain and Palma. There was also a picture of him in the military record, but it was slightly dated as he was back in silver steel again, smiling and saluting, with a small plasma rifle and captain's bars etched into his armor.

So he was a fighter. That was all well and good, but Siren was not very interested in that. It was the post-war history that would catch his fancy. He read on. Here it was, the crime report.

_/ "Charged with sedition, treason, theft of classified information, identity fraud, and the murder of a commanding officer. After honorable discharge from the Motavian military became informant and spy for the rebel liberation army. Leaked confidential documents and aided the activity and escape of a squadron led by rebel leader Riketz Sa Ruik. Did so willingly and knowingly murder commanding officer Colonel Finley through a single shot to the throat. Captured, pled guilty to all charges, and executed in the year AW 1290." /_

Siren stopped reading at that point. What came after was a written confession by the warren-type and some video files of an assumed interrogation. Those were a lot of crimes for one single unit to commit immediately after an honorable discharge. It was just like biting the hand which had fed him and given him life. Perhaps the war had caused this warren to lose it, just as excessive stress had done to similar units hundreds of times before. He had indeed earned the death penalty two or three times over, especially for that murder.

The killing of the CO nearly convinced Siren to give up on the warren and look for somebody else. If his respect for authority was _that_ low what kind of a servant would he make with Siren in command? Only one thing convinced him to rethink his impulse, combated the murder charge and intrigued the red-haired android more than anything else. It was the name of the rebel leader this warren had supported.

Riketz Sa Ruik.

Otherwise known as Orakio Sa Ruik's father.

If he had been willing to die to help the Sa Ruik clan then that made him nearly as loyal a servant as Siren himself. He looked up from the computer as Mieus came back into the room with a heap of tools in her arms. She dumped them unceremoniously on the floor of the cell, then smiled at the older wren-type. "How's it going, Master? Are we going to keep him?" She asked.

"Please take greater care of those tools, Mieus. Many of them are delicate and cannot be replaced." Siren said in a firm, neutral tone. He walked over to the girl and sorted through all the stuff she had found. Of everything about seventy percent were the things he had specifically asked for, which was not bad. He could start work with all these tools now. "This warren is a good servant of Orakio and we are going to bring him back to life. Find me more of those parts. I will begin."

"Right away!" Mieus chirped as she spun around to leave again. She had left a whole lot of stuff in block B because she could only carry so much in her arms.

Siren laid out some of the tools for easy access during the surgery, near the dead warren's torso. In his close proximity to it something hit him softly, like somebody seeing the trick to an optical illusion for the first time. "One last thing." He interrupted before she could go.

"Yes?"

"I have just noticed something." Siren said mysteriously as he looked to their patient lying on the table. As an android he would not be able to sense it, but as an esper he could _just_ feel it, like somebody breathing softly in a room full of stagnant air. It was the same method of sensing that had allowed Rune to locate _him_ in his cryogenic chamber. Without explanation he leant over the warren and pressed the side of his face against his chest, as if listening for a heartbeat. Mieus watched him with curiosity. "This warren is not only not dead, he is not completely shut down either."

"Is that so?" Mieus replied politely before actually processing what he had said. Upon reflection her pretty blue eyes widened slightly. "_What_? He's not shut down? You must be mistaken! Just look at him, _nobody_ would be able to function properly with a hole that big in their head! I mean, I know you said that stuff about where the core is within a wren android, but _surely_ one couldn't be actively functional like that! Paralyzed, senseless…"

"But alive." He finished off for her. "I would not have heard it if I had not sensed it first. It is just a slight electrical vibration in the core. This warren is in the most advanced state of emergency hibernation. Even if he _is_ senseless and paralyzed, as long as he is running at one percent capacity there is a good chance that he may still be conscious." Siren closed his eyes for a moment. "Senseless yet conscious for a thousand years, lost in the dark. At least _we_ had the luxury of unconsciousness."

Mieus seemed sad. She could barely even comprehend what Siren was trying to suggest to her; it was too cruel. If this was a mistake then it was an unimaginable turn of bad luck, but if it was _intentional_ then somebody had sentenced this warren to a fate far worse than death. He was _her_ solider, to think of all the occasions she had come in here to read and kill time and she hadn't even _known_ he was not dead. Maybe she could have done something sooner if she knew.

"That's evil." She said at last.

"Layans are evil. It is only a possibility." Siren reassured her blankly, as if this were unshakable factual information. Unexpectedly, he smiled in mechanical kindness. "Do not dwell upon it. We have the ability to change things now, for this warren, and for Algo who appears to be choking under the layans influence. Bring me those parts, I need that code. We will save him together at the same time."

"Master." Mieus bowed to him obediently and left the room without another word.

They had a long operation and jigsaw puzzle ahead of them. It had started as a search for a servant and an ID code, now it was turning into somewhat of a rescue mission. Siren knew that he was cruel deep down in his mock-soul, he would never deny that, but he was _not_ so cruel as to do to any android what somebody had done to this warren. He was pretty certain the wound had been inflected intentionally, the chances of it being an accident were utterly improbable. However, it was also entirely probable that the warren was still alive.

He did not care personally about the warren-type, but somehow, for some illogical reason, he hoped he was wrong.


	14. Major McCulloch

In the hours proceeding the course change to Motavia the Landale, whose great metal wings had been stilled for the better part of three years attempted an unassisted landing in the wastelands of west Nalya.

People from the small village going about their morning chores looked up to the sky when they heard the harpy scream of the engines and thought the Landale an outlandish falling star. It was none of their business, they were too busy with their own lives to go check it out, though many children looked to the wastelands with longing and wished their parents would let them play explorer.

The grand spaceship kicked up a veritable storm of sand and dust as the jets settled it down to earth, sending small sand newts scuttling off in all directions. The heat even repelled the sand worms which crawled about deep under Motavia's surface. Rune Walsh and his company stepped out into fresh air and a natural environment, and Rune could have kissed the ground if nobody else had been around. They gathered together and marched toward Aiedo in a group, any biomonsters they came across dispatched easily by the armed members of the team.

They reached the capital city of Motavia close to noon. It was a big bustling place filled with noise and laughter, irrigated by a series of water canals which kept the grass and trees a beautiful robust green. It was difficult to recall that only a mile or so away from the city gates the land transformed back from plentiful fields to a barren rocky desert. The town was structured around two important areas, of which Aiedo would not have reached capital city status without.

The hunter's guild was to the north, the hub and social center of all of Motavia's skilled warriors. It was frequented by both honest and outlawed hunters alike, from fresh-faced heroes with shining swords on their belts to white-robed sheiks from the heart of Motavia's sand dunes, and scarred warriors slinking in from all corners of the planet for the promise of coin. The guild was amazingly organised, efficient and powerful.

From the heart of Aiedo lay situated the other main attraction, the marketplace. Merchants from every town on the planet made their pilgrimage to the capital to peddle their various wares. Altogether it resulted in a bazaar so diverse that one could buy just about anything there for a fair discount. Rika usually spent quite a bit of time out at the market, habitually bringing back all sorts of weird and wonderful things to reveal to Chaz, like a kitten presenting finds to its owner.

Rika and Chaz lived in Alys' old house within the western district of Aiedo. The rest of the protectors knew it well, when on Motavia it was their usual base of operations. Many a night had been spent in that house planning the next attack on Lassic or Dark Force, or any other agent of the darkness. It had only been a day or so since Chaz had locked up the place and now he was back again, fiddling with the lock which was a little temperamental sometimes. You never quite knew who could just come in off the street and wander through your house these days.

The group disbanded once they reached Chaz Ashley's house. Some of them went directly to the hunter's guild bar, the Pao Pao, others found a spot somewhere in Chaz's home and caught up on the sleep they had missed in the night, while a few just disappeared altogether. They decided to meet back up again after the sun had set. Some meetings should only be carried out under the cover of darkness, and besides, they were too discombobulated as they were now. Time was needed to pull themselves together.

Chaz slipped into his and Rika's room once the others were settled down or gone, closing the door firmly behind him. He removed the clothes which had been charred and burned by Siren's shot, then he stared with slight revulsion and fascination at the bandaged wound in the mirror. A small part of the dressing was peppered with faint traces of blood, he rubbed it softly and winced as the light pressure needled pain throughout his arm and neck. Perhaps he should change into his hunter gear and armor. If he had been prepared earlier he wouldn't have been wounded so badly.

Well, maybe later, once they figured out what they were going to do. Chaz threw on some jeans, pulled a light grey jacket and a shirt over his wound and sighed deeply. He was never going to let Siren get another shot at him again. Once he was dressed Chaz opened up his cabinet and sorted through his stuff, tossing various underwear aside to get to what he wanted, a long wooden box polished and varnished to a dark mahogany brown. It was still there, thank goodness. The blond hunter had a little habit of losing important things.

He brought the box over to the bed and laid it down gently, unfastening the little metal clasps which held it closed. Over the course of his adventures Chaz had garnered quite an impressive weapon collection. From ceramic to high-grade laconia, he had it all, but Chaz never brought a sword or a pair of daggers on a hunter mission whose power far excelled its requirement. As such, he had some weapons put away that he had not used as far back as Rykros. This box contained one of them.

The strongest one, in his humble opinion. Chaz lifted the sword and scabbard out of the fabric he had packed it in. Next to Elsydeon this was the most powerful sword he had ever owned. Light, sharp and incredibly strong, the guardian sword was any hunter's dream. Its balance was unparalleled and Chaz smiled as he belted the scabbard securely around his waist. No, nobody would be able to get the better of him with _this_ baby in his hands.

He heard a curt rapping on the door to his bedroom, businesslike, and before Chaz even _thought_ to reply to it Rune was already bursting in on the scene. Rune? He had just checked on the magician. Last he saw of him the esper had been passed out across his couch. Rune seemed fine now, even that arrogant face-punchable smirk was plastered back on his mug. "Playing dress-up, Chaz?" He asked the youth in a patronizing, playful tone.

"Shut up." Chaz replied dismissively as he tidied himself up. The days in which Rune could bait him into an argument without any effort at all were truly over. The end of an era. "What do you want? Restless or something, or is my couch really _that_ uncomfortable?"

"No, it's not that." Rune assured him as he sat on the edge of the soft bed, laying his hands in his lap. "It's just that I had a thought while I was counting all the cracks in your ceiling. We haven't really had a chance to talk one-on-one for a few years now, and there were a couple of things I've been meaning to say to you ever since I saw you on Zelan." The esper confessed. "You seem to be doing pretty well for yourself. Work must be good."

"I'm making ends meet, if that's what you mean. Someday there'll be no need for hunters once the biomonsters die out, but Rika says that won't happen completely for at least another decade or so." Chaz sat down beside Rune and looked into the mirror. It was amazing, they were practically the same height now. Rune only had an inch or two against him, if at that. The young hunter cracked a nostalgic grin. "It's not like I'm by myself anyway. I'll always have Rika to help me out. She's going to take up gardening professionally once I get my carpenter's permit and then we won't have to fight for our food ever again."

Rune made a soft 'hm'ing noise at Chaz's bright plans for the future. He supposed the boy deserved a life like that and all the good fortune required to create it, after all that Chaz had bled and sacrificed for during the Great War. Rika also deserved no less for herself, and truth to tell Rune felt slightly jealous of the two over their chances to live free lives. He could never even _conceive_ of a freedom such as that, it had been denied to him shortly after his birth.

All the Lutz was required to do was exist and refine the abilities given to him, then die respectfully so that a younger, fresher descendant could take over the responsibility. After all he had accomplished thus far in his life Rune was in essence just waiting for the time to die. This sole honor was his only reward from his participation in the war. Somehow he reckoned that there was something slightly unbalanced with the reward system set for the protectors of Algo. The only thing which kept him going was his faith, and fortunately, he had plenty of that.

"Will Rika fight with us when we go back to take care of Siren?" Rune asked the young hunter. Yesterday on the space station he remembered Rika saying that she had officially retired from combat and the hunter scene, allowing the license she had earned shortly after her release into the real world age and expire. She hadn't put on a pair of claws since their trip into the Edge. Would she fight again in their battle, or would she be content to stay behind? Rune wouldn't fault her if she stayed. They all had thought the new millennium meant the ending of conflict and strife.

Just as Rune thought of all this so too did Chaz. "I remember how magnificent she was. She still is, of course, but it was a different kind of magnificence than the sort she exudes today. I led all of you into the abyss with Elsydeon at my side, but when it came to usefulness all I could do was strike the enemy with the sword and the mastery of hatred I had learned on Rykros. Rika supported us, reinforced us, healed us and _also_ struck back at the enemy. For her to do all those again it would require an enormous amount of need. She's strong, but it's not a kind of strength we should take for granted."

"If I had my say, my way with things I'd ask her to stay here in Aiedo and wait for the rest of us to return. She's my fiancée, I don't want her getting hurt or killed over something I could have prevented. I would feel responsible." Chaz confessed sheepishly to the magician, rubbing his neck lightly. "But the thing is, I don't own Rika any more than she owns me. I can't tell her to stay any more than she can tell me to go. You'd have to ask her for herself, Rune. Why did you want to know?"

It was because Rika was one of the holders of the five rings of the stars. He felt that they should not be broken apart, that together in combat they should all stand as one against any foe. Rika with Motavia's ring, Wren with Palma's ring, himself with Dezoris' ring, Raja with Rykros' ring, and at last Chaz Ashley with the most powerful trinket of all, the ring of Algo. The magician stood and stretched, hearing and feeling the satisfying cricks in his back. "Just wondering." He replied with a shallow yawn. "I care about her too, you know. You're not the only one."

"Of course." Chaz grinned. "You told me once that if I didn't date her then _you_ would. That _really_ got my rear into gear!"

"Well, that's the one catch about becoming an esper. You're trained to wield phenomenal cosmic power, learn the wisdom of the ages, but you're not allowed to fall in love. The sharp emotional feelings dangerously affect an esper's powers because we're all empaths at the core. Lust is fine and dandy though, so I guess I should be thankful for that." Rune laughed and adjusted his white cloak in preparation for the great heat and sunshine outside. It was genuine laughter, but there was also a tiny speck of sadness in there as well. "I'm gonna join Hahn and Raja at the Pao Pao, did you wanna come?"

Chaz had a small intuitive hunch that the sadness exhibited in Rune's laughter was for no one else but Alys. He might not have been the brightest daisy in the patch back when Alys had been alive and they all had traveled to Tonoe for the Alshline, but he wasn't stupid either. As a sixteen year old boy the very thought of Rune and Alys together was enough to make him gag, yet now as a nineteen year old man he realised that Rune had lost nearly as much of Alys as _he_ had. The magician never talked about it, never mentioned a word to anybody. In that, he was strong.

Maybe a little too strong for his own good.

"I think I'll stay here and get everything organised for the meeting tonight. Weapons, armor and all that stuff. When it starts to get dusky I'll go looking for everybody and bring them back here. Rika and Demi went grocery shopping for tonight's dinner, but I have _no_ idea where Wren wandered off to. Just do me a favor and make sure Hahn and Raja don't disappear too, okay?" Chaz went quiet for awhile, but he still looked at Rune as if he were going to say more. "Hey, Rune?"

"Yeah?"

The youth fidgeted, and for a few moments he was back to being a young baby-faced boy again. "You… Three years ago you said I was never going to see you again. Why did you say that? I never really understood the reason why. I had always hoped we'd be able to get together again every so often, all of us."

The false cheerfulness dropped away from Rune's spirit and then there he stood, a man far too old and yet way too young to deal with the responsibilities handed to him. For the first time Chaz saw the light feather imprint of age on the esper's face, a line or two that had not been there three years ago. Rune spoke nothing but the truth. "Until all this stuff with the worldship happened, I had intended on cloistering myself away from Algo until I died of old age. I have nothing else to offer this world. I have already given it everything I can. I'm tired. Dry."

Chaz could not think of anything else to say save for; "…Oh."

Smiling bravely, Rune reached over and roughed up the youth's hair just like in the old days. He chuckled. "But you know, sometimes Algo gets a little greedy and asks for a bit more. If I can offer it, any service, then there's still a reason for me to be here. I'm here, and I'm happy about it."

With the flick of his cloak Rune swirled out of the room, uttering one last thing as he left.

"That's enough for me."

†††

_/ "Hello there colonel. Sorry for not saluting you; my hands are tied." /_

_/ "Interrogation commenced at 19:37. Now… tell me, why did you do it? Why did you throw away a good life and your good name for some insane ideas, for a rebel faction who will **not lift a finger** to save your useless worthless life from the death penalty? God, I think I know you better than anybody alive right now, so why? You are usually not this staggeringly stupid!" /_

Siren watched with near-amusement as Mieus' little convoy service filled the small cell with a heap of tools and parts and other such things which were useless to him. She didn't let the fact that she had nothing to carry the parts in save for her arms discourage her. When the parts arrived Siren got down to the business of sorting and organizing them, the pair working as an efficient team. They labored silently, with no talking, but Siren had run the half-hour long audio file in the computer to give them some kind of background noise to work against.

_/ "I don't know; you tell me. You already know the correct answer. It's not because I wanted to, its because I **needed** to. I think I might have ended the war. My little life is worth a trip to the firing squad if it ultimately results in peace. People won't have a reason to kill each other anymore." /_

_/ "Your naivete astounds me! I just want to leap across the table and strangle you where you sit! Don't you get it? People don't **need** a reason to kill one another! All you have managed to do is offer the rebels a flicker of hope, a small hole for them to slip through. They will not succeed. We will stop them. You will be executed as an example to all other androids who believe that switching sides will make a difference." /_

It sounded like their patient's final interrogation session before his execution. The two voices sounded exactly the same, sounded exactly like Siren too, so he calculated that the file consisted of two wren-types arguing with one another. It was either that or the condemned warren-type had been schizophrenically scolding himself the night before he had died. There was a differing inflection in the warren's voice which set him apart from his interrogator, something that was almost, but not quite a slight Abian accent. How rare. How decidedly palman.

_/ "I know. It hasn't really sunk in yet. Ha ha…" /_

_/ "Oh, it **will**, and let me tell you, if I am given command of the firing squad tomorrow morning I will make certain that it sinks in deep enough to stick. Forever." /_

Siren was mentally designing a repair procedure while his hands sorted and organised mindlessly. It would be best to attempt the reconstruction of the sensory devices before he started reinstalling parts and adding back in the OS. Best to get the messy complicated stuff over with first and clean it up afterwards. However, he was not certain if he should completely reconstruct the damaged area or amputate and start all over again with a new part.

Reconstruct and some of the sensory devices may become faulty or damaged, not to mention leaving the warren with hideous, disfiguring scars. Amputation and replacement might be cleaner, but there would be no telling of the data which may be lost. If the devices were still connected to the core in some way the severing could affect the warren in unclear ways.

_/ "I'm sorry, Forren. What I did was bad, almost evil I guess, but it didn't feel like I had a choice at the time. It's just… I couldn't stand the idea of the war continuing without me, people getting hurt and killed when I couldn't be around to help them. I had to **do** something; I had to at least **try** to stop the fighting. It's okay for you; you don't care. All you have to do is shout orders at people and then turn your back when those people die." /_

_/ "Just because I'm an android and an officer doesn't mean I don't care. I care. I really admired your philanthropy, though the Light knows I've never been able to figure out how you managed it. It conflicts in me, but I am sad to say that I personally lobbied for your immediate execution. You are a traitor. You could be Alis Landale for all I care. No matter **what** you were in the past that does not help you now." /_

In the end, he reckoned, data could always be replaced but hardware problems were longer-lasting and worse. Siren took a saw and a blowtorch from Mieus' supply of tools. The girl watched him do this with muted curiosity, about to leave for another run to block B again. The voices of the interrogation continued on persistently. "Mieus, are there any other warren-types in the general vicinity?" He asked softly as he held the saw in hand, like a mad scientist plotting the most godless of schemes.

_/ "I'm a lot of things. You are too, but you're lucky I don't have the heart to describe them to you. I'm kind of… really afraid of this. I've never died before. Do you think it will hurt? Forren, I'm scared." /_

_/ "…You will be finding out at sunrise, Warren. Take this time tonight to reflect upon your life. If I will not be supervising the execution then I'll certainly be a part of the firing squad, so I will see you then. Just remember that you are **also** an android and an officer, so hold your head up high. Interview terminated at 20:07. Goodnight." /_

Mieus had been listening to the recording when Siren spoke to her, but she diverted her attention back the moment she heard his voice. The girl looked thoughtful for a few moments as she searched her memory banks. Warrens weren't a very common variety of wren, mostly because some of the parts involved were very difficult to make, but still, there were a good handful of them in storage and even one or two others there in block C. "I could find some, why?" She replied.

He handed her the saw and the blowtorch solemnly. She took them without further question but it was still there, immaterial, on the tip of her tongue. "We will need a replacement for the part that I am about to amputate. Go find another warren-type and decapitate him with these tools. Try to do it cleanly, keep as many cables as undamaged as you can. I will fix up the breaks later. Can you do that for me?"

"You want me to cut somebody's _head_ off? Like, _severing_?" She raised her eyebrows in surprise. Nobody had ever asked her to do something like that before; she had always been taught that acts such as those were abhorrent. She had been sentenced to an eternal sleep for what she had done to weak, unwilling palman bodies. When she thought back to it Mieus smiled, and not in a very friendly way either. It was the sort of smile a pyromaniac might give if handed a box of matches. "…I think I could do that." She purred softly, at last.

She didn't need a push out of the door to get herself going, she was gone as soon as she realised what Siren was asking of her. The girl even giggled as she went. There was something not quite right with Mieus, Siren supposed, but for now that was none of his business. He went back to work.

During the course of an hour and while Mieus swept through the corridors of Zelan like a cheerful head hunter Siren took up some tools and did a little decapitating of his own. There was nothing that needed saving there, still it felt odd to cut somebody's head off and still expect them to be up and running a few hours later. At least in the senselessness this warren should not be able to feel any pain. Siren wondered if the android had any awareness of the effort being taken to free him from his prison, but that was extremely unlikely.

He had some spare time waiting for Mieus to come back so Siren performed a quick diagnostic to ascertain what kind of parts had been taken from the good major after his death. As expected all combat-related machinery had been either deactivated or removed entirely, the flare and energy barrier generators, ports which would have connected to a rifle or cannon, and other miscellaneous units. There were also signs that his core had been tampered with to a minor degree, but it had not been damaged in any way.

Siren looked up from the diagnostic as Mieus stepped back into the room, cradling a severed head in her arms. The silly girl had left the saw and blowtorch back where she had carried out her amateurish operation, but he'd make her go back and retrieve them later. She was smiling widely. "I'm back! Is this what you were wanting, Master? I got it from a unit who became depressed and killed himself. That won't affect this warren here somehow, right?"

"Don't be ridiculous." Siren scolded her as he took the part from his servant's hands. He inspected Mieus' work. It wasn't too bad an amputation, he'd barely have to do any repair work at all. The wren-type went back to the operating table with the part in hand. He felt just like Dr. Mad with his twisted experiments, and honestly, he had both missed and enjoyed the experience. "I will require silence while I work. Please take a seat and be quiet from now on." He said.

"If you need any help at all just ask me. I can still be useful." Mieus told him gently as she moved to one of the corners of the cell and sat down there. It was familiar, she had spent a good bit of time in that corner balancing the little computer on her legs. She could hand him tools, or hold things up for him, just like a palman nurse. Funny how such a delicate mechanical operation was being performed on none other than a doctor. Ironic.

After twenty four years of lying still and comatose Mieus suffered to wait another two hours in conscious silence, her arms wrapped around her knees and watching like an obedient dog ready to spring up for any task asked of her. She admired people who could do things like what Siren was doing, who could do it without hesitation or second-guessing himself. She would never be able to do anything like that, she was good for nothing. The only thing she was able to do easily and effectively was kill people. Taking life was _nothing_ compared to bringing life back from the brink of oblivion.

Siren gave the warren a brand new face, one untouched by bullet or injury. He reconnected and soldered wires and cables for what felt like an age, but he went slowly and took his time because he'd be damned if he was going to make a mistake. He had standards to live up to, standards that had not been enforced in the past thousand years. Eventually he pulled away and put the soldering iron down. There, that was about as well as he could manage it. The machine looked nearly as good as new. Nearly.

Next was the re installation of the missing parts. Some the warren could not live without and others were purely there for combat or other functions. Siren reinstalled the essentials like the equalizer for balance, the router for wireless computer interface, and of course the basic combat protocol. He also gave the warren back his connector ports for the use of firearms again. The android could install his own peripheral parts himself once he was alive again. Finally, it was time to give him back his operating system and the reins for his own control.

If he had added everything right and the OS was installed correctly the android would be able to reactivate by himself. However, if only one out of a thousand things went wrong the android would stay dead and Siren would have to go back over everything all over again to locate the anomaly. He went to the small metal box on the table which contained all the warren's personal belongings, expecting to find the OS flash drive inside.

He found it all right, but not necessarily in the best of condition. It looked like somebody had crushed it in the palm of their hand, reducing it to tiny useless fragments, crumbs at the bottom of the box. It was irreparable. "The OS has been destroyed." Siren reported to Mieus calmly, another setback making things more difficult for them. "We will have to find a replacement."

"Should I go look for another one?" Mieus volunteered as she stood, then put her hand over her mouth when she realized she wasn't supposed to speak.

"I don't think so. I will give this unit a copy of my own OS. The compatibility issues should be minimal." Siren replied as he pulled out a retractable cable from behind his audio sensor, a direct interface wire. Androids may be incredibly advanced beings, but in essence they were nothing more than palman-shaped computers.

The operating system dictated how hardware and software were to function; it bound all the separate parts together. It was true that a differing OS might affect personality slightly and the leanings of thought, but anything that was good enough for Siren should be good enough for anybody else. If anything the warren should be grateful for the gift that was about to be given to him.

"Are you sure that is a smart idea?" Mieus found herself asking. She didn't really know if that was dangerous, but it didn't seem quite right. Each unit's operating system was unique for a good reason.

Siren looked at her with which was almost a glare. He didn't mind her talking out of turn when she wasn't supposed to, but he abhorred being questioned, especially by a servant. "Are _you_ sure it is wise to second-guess your master? Remember that if I get sick of you I can always put you back in the dark." It wasn't an empty threat, either. He had no attachment to Mieus whatsoever, he could do whatever he wanted with her.

"I'm sorry, Master. I'll watch what I say next time. I will not question you." _'Just please don't put me back to sleep again.'_ She promised as she hung her head in shame, keeping the final fragment of her plea to herself. What did _she_ know about things like this anyway? Nothing.

The older android seemed to soften when Mieus found her place again. "It is alright." He told her as he connected his interface cable to a little port on the other side of the warren's neck. If he had soldered the connections properly this should work with ease, taking the information from one core to another. "I know what I am doing."

For five minutes he stood as he was, silent, giving to his next potential servant the android equivalent of a blood transfusion. Siren would not lose anything over this, while the warren stood to gain his life, his everything back. He couldn't help but listen in to the android's neural matrix while he copied down and transferred the information. It was very quiet, like an empty church, but there was a sort of _presence_ which meant there was a life in there, somewhere.

_/ "Is there anybody out there?" /_

He called out into the void.

If the dark and the empty were moving, like a floating stream of consciousness, upon Siren speaking everything went still, cold, motionless. Like somebody letting off cannon fire during a music rehearsal the general feeling was astonished confusion, and fear. The warren had gone for so long without words, without solid concrete concepts that this was the only way in which he could communicate. The lack of an operating system probably didn't help, either.

Siren persisted as gently as he could. _/ "Is there anybody in there? Speak to me, please." /_

He'd persist for as long as it took to load up the OS, and if he got nothing he'd forget about it and talked to the warren again once he was functioning and conscious, whole and not just part of the core. He could detect Mieus standing right beside him, practically clinging onto his side now. She could tell something was going on but she just could not see it like Siren could.

The loading process was almost complete and he did not receive a concrete reply. Without another word he disconnected the cable and stepped away from his little project, disentangling Mieus from his arm. The five short minutes had felt more like an entire hour to him. "There, we are finished. The repairs are complete."

"He's going to wake up now?" Mieus pressed eagerly.

At first Siren would have said yes, but now he was not so sure. There was nothing stopping the other wren-type from reactivating himself and coming back into the waking world, yet did the warren _himself_ know that? Probably not, or else he would have replied to Siren in some way while he was busy loading up the operating system. He folded his arms. "It is possible, not certain. He can receive sensory input now but he might not be aware of the changes. His consciousness must be deep down in the core, hidden and stuck in a rut. It is difficult to locate an open door in total darkness."

Mieus thought that Siren's metaphor was rather beautiful. She had felt a variant of that experience herself in the first few seconds of her resurrection. There had been nothing, only darkness, but then she had been pulled forward; back into the light. It was different because this warren did not have that initial push to help him along. She wanted to help somehow, to contribute her own part. "Is there anything that I can do?"

"A sharp sensory experience should snap him into activation. Feel free to scream or to slap him, that should be effective." He advised her, stepping back to lean against the wall of the cell. He was passing the torch over to Mieus now, she could take over for him. He was satisfied with all he had accomplished so far.

Mieus thought for a little while, feeling Siren's eyes on her back. It wouldn't feel right to scream or to slap somebody who might have suffered so much already. It wouldn't leave a very good first impression either. "What will happen when he wakes up? Will he attack me? I attacked _you_."

"Any manner of things could happen. There has already been one attack today so it is unlikely it will happen again. If it does I am here to protect you."

The promise made her feel much better. She wasn't a defenseless child but having some backup was reassuring. Mieus took the warren by the shoulder and lifted him into a sitting position using her great strength. The repairs really had made a difference, he looked _so_ much better now. After so long her soldier was finally going to wake up. She'd serve her master happily for that gift alone. Mieus leaned forward. Sensory, huh? She could think of one _other_ sensory experience much kinder than a slap...

"Hey Warren... wake up, darling." She whispered softly with a smile, then she kissed him.

Siren laughed shortly and quietly to himself when he realised what Mieus' 'methods' were. The kiss was decidedly one-sided and she wasn't quite sure of she was making a difference, but when she lot go of the warren's armor he didn't fall back and continued to sit up on his own. She'd been kissed a few times in her life and she had nothing to complain about that, but this was the first time she had ever kissed anybody of her own choosing before. It reminded her of Motavia and the small village where _he_ had lived…

She felt somebody take her by the shoulders and pull her away. It couldn't have been her master because he was standing right behind her. The grip was extremely weak. Mieus opened her eyes and was pleased to see the other android was looking back at her now, not vacantly, but conscious and _aware_. He was looking at her as if he had never seen another person in his life before, or as if she had sprouted an extra two heads and had started to glow a bright green. He was functional! They had succeeded!

"Are you Warren six hundred and eighty three? Major Warren McCulloch? Can you speak to me, honey?" She asked him slowly, annunciating properly so he could understand her. He could be deaf or mute, though probably not blind, but they would not be able to tell for sure until he displayed those other senses competently. The warren didn't do anything for quite a long time, instigating a heavy pause, then he lowered his gaze and removed his hands from Mieus' shoulders.

"…This can't be happening… you can't be real…" He said in a soft voice which had not been used for over a millennia. It was identical to the voice they had heard on the interrogation file, but broken and without hope.

"It's real. It's happening. You've been half-dead for a very long time, but we've come along and we have revived you. You okay?" She was glad he had not attacked the moment he realised where he was, but now Mieus wasn't very sure what else to say to him. Nothing really came to mind that wouldn't sound utterly soppy and stupid. Siren wasn't going to help her either, he was content to hang back and watch.

"You rescued me?" There was a little more energy in his voice the second time around. Mostly it came from disbelief. Too often he had hoped so much to be saved that he would almost hallucinate in his dreams, that he would scream _'help me!'_ or _'save me!'_ until he succumbed utterly to the hopelessness. How was he to know this wasn't just an extremely vivid mirage from his lonely mind?

"Yes. Well, mostly my master did. I was just the one who woke you up."

"…Who are you?" The android looked back at her again, then something seemed to come back to him and he grabbed at his face, at the area which had once been shot away. It was whole again; he was healed. That was impossible, it had never been this way in his dreams. He was supposed to be dead and _stay_ dead, forever. The warren started to tremble involuntarily, from both anxiety and his nervous system coming back to life again.

"My name is Mieus. I don't have a number, just like my master Siren." She introduced herself and the android standing behind her. She reached out and took the warren's hand away from his face before he could possibly hurt himself, meeting no resistance whatsoever. "You are the warren who was executed for being a traitor, right? Don't tell me we went through all that trouble over the wrong one!"

"I…" The warren started to say, but then his voice quavered and it didn't seem like he was able to get the entire sentence out at once. The aspect of his core which dictated his recollection of words had been nonfunctional for too long. "Th-that's me. I'm Major McCulloch. I… was really afraid. It was worse than the trenches, worse than hell. I'll never be bad again, I promise…"

It was heartbreaking, really. After a punishment such as that anybody would be willing to do _anything_ to prevent it from ever happening again. Warren looked like he was about to burst into tears. Mieus had never seen another android look like that before. The comment she had made to Siren earlier came back to her now, about how wren-types abandoned their emotions after they hit a certain age. It must not have touched this warren yet. "It's okay now." Mieus promised him benevolently. "You'll never have to go back there ever again."

When he heard that the relief was so great that Warren yanked his wrist out of Mieus' grip and suddenly threw his arms around her, pressing her against his chest. Mieus squeaked at the unexpected action and her programming immediately told her to fight back, to claw at him until he let her go, but she squashed the urge and awkwardly hugged him back. After a few moments of this she heard a noise she didn't think she'd ever hear coming from an android, and especially a soldier. A sob.

He was crying.

This was _way_ out of her league, she'd never had to console a crying _anybody_ before. Mieus shot a quick pleading glance at her master as a silent cry for help, yet Siren just looked back blankly at her and shrugged to emphasize his point. _He_ was not a woman, she could figure it out on her own. Mieus sighed, but somewhere deep inside of her she already knew exactly what to do. "Oh darling, don't cry. You don't have any reason to cry, you're safe."

He wasn't crying any actual tears because of what he was, but Warren was going through all the motions and it appeared spectacularly genuine. He wasn't crying because he was sad, gods no, he was crying because he was astoundingly happy and relieved. A thousand years of blindness, deafness, muteness and numbness, never-ending, a living hell. It was all over. He had lost hope centuries ago but now he was saved. It was beyond a miracle, it was a _miracle's_ miracle.

He couldn't talk and cry at the same time, and he wasn't going to let go of Mieus until he was finished. Warren was so incredibly grateful to this girl for being there, because if he had woken up by himself there was no way he could have handled it on his own. It was so wonderful to have hands to hold people with again and people themselves to offer some comparison between himself and the darkness. Warren already loved Mieus deeply for that, for being the first person to step out of the darkness and be real.

Siren got up off the wall he was leaning on and calmly made for the door. Normally he had no sympathy for those who made such displays of weakness public knowledge, but he also had a very good idea of the torture that Warren had just been through. It was enough to break a man made out of steel. It also meant that although Warren was blubbering now he was also amazingly, freakishly tough to come out of it sane. "Take your time to calm him down before I question him. I will just be waiting outside in the hallway." He told her just as he left.

So Mieus held Warren until he stopped crying, which was a little longer than she would have expected. After that they talked, and Warren had quite a few interesting things to say. Siren gave them all the time that they needed. There was no rush.

After a thousand years of sleep and suffering, what was a little more time between friends?


	15. Fealty

At night Aiedo's Pao Pao bar was abuzz and alight with singing and dancing, music and questionable entertainment. The lights would stay on and the drinks would keep flowing until well after midnight. Hunters were a rowdy crowd of people and they relaxed in the general manner that they worked, with a disregard for life, limb and brain cells. Two or three times a year, usually between Yule and New Year's eve the place was taken apart and thoroughly wrecked. One misdirected slicer thrown in a room full of drunken hunters tended to have an adverse effect on the masonry, not to mention the people within.

Rune had been there, lurking around the tables during that Yuletide carousing. Those were the days when it was extremely amusing to watch a young hunter try to break a bottle into an improvised weapon and wind up with a bleeding hand full of glass shards. Life was dull, boring and unbelievably strict, but every once in a while there were some bright fun spots that would always stick in his memory. Rune entered the Pao Pao and wandered about until he found his friends, sitting at a table in the back of the bar.

During the daylight hours the bar was filled with a completely different atmosphere. It was mostly empty, rather quiet, and only regulars and tired travelers populated the tables and barstools. Part of the wall had been plastered up recently from some kind of breakage. Somebody had tried to stick a hunter's guild scroll over it to hide away the damage. A white-robed sheik loitered beside it, drinking a tall glass of either colorless spirit or water. Rune put his money on water. _Nobody_ could drink that much spirit so casually and hope to remain upright.

Raja noticed Rune enter the bar and waved the esper over to their table. There were already a handful of empty glasses scattered about the table like little glass towers. Many of them seemed to have belonged to Raja. A spare seat had been left empty. Hahn nudged it out for him with a gentle kick from his boot. "Hey, we were expecting to see Chaz." The scholar announced to his friend.

Rune turned and walked up to the table, but did not take a seat just yet. He could hear conversations going on at other tables but he focussed his attention on this one. "He's running around getting ready for the attack on Zelan, organizing weapons for everybody who didn't bring theirs and stuff. You got me to deal with instead. What have you guys been up to? Drinking your confusion away? Mind if I join?"

Something suddenly occurred to Hahn and he slapped a palm to his brow. "Oh man! I just remembered! I left one of my daggers back on Zelan! My Da made those for me, they're one of a kind!"

"Didn't you say your dad was a blacksmith? Couldn't he just make you a new pair?" Raja asked nonchalantly with his elbow on the table, supporting his cheek with his fist. He had a nice fresh gimlet in his other hand to slow things down a bit. The lime juice was a lovely new flavor for him, citrus trees did not usually grow back on his home planet.

"It's a pair of knives, not a pair of socks." Hahn grumbled. He had never bought into the family blacksmith trade, being too weak and _far_ too intellectual for that kind of labor, but he had endured enough of his father's rants about 'the craft' to be able to parrot it off again to Raja. He probably wasn't even aware that he was doing it. "Mahlay alloy is a special material that can only be reproduced by my family in the Krup area. The composition is a secret, Da won't even tell _me_ because I didn't want to follow in his footsteps. All I know is that it takes forever just to be able to forge a single blade."

Rune sat down at the table and felt like folding his arms on the surface then laying his head down upon them. He felt so tired, and slightly hungry too. He hoped that Rika's cooking abilities had improved since the campfire meals of three years ago. As for Hahn's family alloy, they probably didn't even realise the origin of the material. Mount Mahlay, rich in minerals, lurking beneath the great shadow of the Air Castle. The gate to the darkness had been made out of that same conductive metal.

The esper would have liked it if he could get through a day on the outside world without being slapped by some memory or another. It was like being repeatedly hit by a stinky old fish. He watched Hahn working his way through a pint of beer, it didn't look like he was struggling with it at all. "You miss your family?" Rune asked, because a person who was totally happy with their life wouldn't be acting like Hahn did.

"Well, yes and no. You know how it is. When you're there you sometimes wish you were somewhere else, but when you've gone all you can think about is coming home again. I really miss Saya. I wish Piata were closer to Krup." The scholar sighed. "Sometimes I think I should have become a blacksmith so I wouldn't have to travel so much. What good am I doing now as I am? Do people ever care about the information I'm trying to teach? And I'm going to be a parent soon, eventually. My child would need a father, not just a pen pal."

Raja patted Hahn consolingly on the back. He had declined that sort of business when he became a priest, but he _did_ have a family so he could sympathize with his friend. "I know how you feel. I got a nephew and a niece that I never see either. It's just too hard to keep up communications with the climate as it is." He brightened and then laughed. "All the carrier pigeons that I send keep on dropping dead from the cold! It's nice and warm 'round here, though."

"Are you sure it isn't your sense of humor that's keeping them away?" Rune inquired innocently, raising an eyebrow. Raja just smirked knowingly at Rune's little jab at his character, taking a sip of his drink.

A waitress walked up to the table and courteously cleared away the empty glasses for them. She was wearing a short black skirt and a very low-cut top, of course, this was a _hunter's_ guild after all. The lean in her posture as she tidied up for them wasn't quite unintentional, either. Nevertheless, Rune rather appreciated the view.

"You boys want anything else from the bar?" She drawled, her accent thick and heavy from the country. Another pilgrim to Aiedo for the opportunity, he guessed.

Hahn and Raja were still working through their glasses but Rune was parched. After everything that Algo had put him through these past few days he felt like he deserved something special. There was one particular thing he liked each time he came to Motavia. He wondered if they still stocked it here. "I'll have a double bourbon, thanks. From Torinco. Seven years or up, if you have it."

The waitress jotted his request down in her little notebook and smiled. He had pretty good taste for a religious type, unlike the odd green-skinned man who would drink anything if she put a parasol in it. "That stuff doesn't come cheap, you know." She warned him.

Rune did not have much respect for the value of meseta these days. He didn't care, his wallet was full enough for a couple of drinks. He waved her away and focussed back on his friends. They had all talked so avidly about how perfect their lives had become back on Zelan, but nothing was perfect and nobody could remain happy forever. Was it horrible of him to feel sort of _consoled_ by this? To know that his life wasn't the only one that seemed partially incomplete?

"Take my advice." Rune instructed Hahn as he waited for his drink to arrive. His advice was not divine, or sagely, but it was from one friend to another during a time of weird uncertainty. "Just be grateful for what you got. You have a good life so don't complain about it. Try and imagine life without your family, without Saya, without your kid on the way. Think of that then thank the Light for what He has chosen to give you. I hate listening to spoiled whiners."

Hahn meditated on this for several reflective moments, sipping down his beer. Rune was right, he was lucky for what he had. Sometimes he thought it a miracle in itself that Saya had enough faith and trust in him to allow him to work so far away from home. It must be very lonely for her. "I think," he said at last, "that if I save up enough money I might be able to convince her to move to Piata with me and buy a house there."

"You could get Chaz to build it for you." Raja suggested as he finished his gimlet. "But it might fall in after three days or burst into flames."

A glass of whisky was placed daintily down in front of Rune. The deep amber liquid inside turned the small chunks of ice in the glass a syrupy gold. Huh, ice. _That_ was quite a rarity on this side of Motavia. The waitress brushed some hair behind her ear. "It's your lucky day, sweets. This is some Torinco twelve-year. The barman gave me a dirty look for breaking the seal on the bottle."

"How much do I owe you?" Said Rune, the ice clinking pleasantly as he picked up the glass. It was lovely and cool in his black-gloved hand. Cool, but not _too_ cool, he noticed, or else the temperature would subtract from the flavor. A good, well prepared drink.

The young woman shook her head. "Don't worry about it. It's already been paid for by that fella in the robes over there, see?" She pointed him out to Rune with a very overt sweep of her arm. The three friends leant over to see who she was pointing at, and by a mild surprise it had been the young sheik Rune had scrutinized earlier. He returned the trinity of looks with a gentle wave, probably smiling under his white cowl.

"Oh, thanks then." Rune murmured as the waitress left again to service some of her other customers, now wary that something awful may have been slipped into his bourbon on purpose. It was a night under the blue moon when somebody bought Rune drinks for no reason, especially whisky well over a decade old. Still, it looked far too good to waste, so…

It was a testament to the great age of the liquor that it went down hot and burning and _incredibly_ smooth. It was like silk. Rune definitely had nothing to complain about. If it was poison, well, then he'd die a semi-happy man. He set the glass down onto the coaster with a satisfied look on his face. "That was exactly what I needed." He admitted to Hahn and Raja earnestly.

Raja, being the least informed person about Motavia kept staring at the sheik, despite the childhood knowledge that it was impolite to stare. The man at the other table seemed immune to his stare. "Is it normal for palmans to wander about dressed in curtains all the time, or is that a new kind of fashion statement just taking hold?" He asked. Maybe it was just him but the man looked ridiculous. It was only the curved sword on his belt that caused Raja to believe it wasn't some sort of a joke.

"Dressed in _what_?" Hahn repeated incredulously, then understood what the heck he was talking about. "Oh, the sheiks? There's a society of palmans who live exclusively in the deserts and rarely visit the towns. They base their lifestyle around the way the motavians live, because they were the original inhabitants of this planet. They're very nomadic and secretive, so nobody's really certain how many of them there are. In battle they're supposed to fight like devils with rabies, so I hear."

"They wear white because it reflects the heat better than darker clothes. The flowing robes keeps them cool too." Rune chipped in casually, a little more absorbed in his drink than the conversation. His own cloak had been tailored specifically for wear on Motavia for that same reason. He'd never spoken to the desert sheiks before in any of his incarnations, they were a rather new society on the planet that he had no business with.

"It all sounds pretty daft to me. Live the way you're born to live, that's what _I_ say! If people could switch around who they are so easily you'd have penguins wanting to be bishops and people sitting in nests making chirping noises. That's _backwards_ thought, that's what that is." Whenever Raja had a point to make he pounded it into people's head, with a sledgehammer if necessary. When it all boiled down to it he _was_ a priest, and could preach as such.

"But surely the freedom to do whatever we want to do and be whatever we want to be is inherent in our birthright?" The sheik implored in a soft dusty voice, suddenly standing _right there_ and placing a hand on Raja's shoulder. His eyes seemed to smile, he looked very amused. "My mother always taught me that it is okay to do whatever I want, provided I don't hurt anybody physically, mentally or spiritually. You understand, offendi?"

"I'm sorry, this is a private conversation." Hahn explained carefully after clearing his throat. _His_ mother had taught him that interrupting and eavesdropping was very rude.

This did not perturb the strange man. He was barely visible beneath all the white, but Rune could see that his face was deeply tanned. "You were talking in very loud voices, about me I might add. I just came over here to see what was going on." He looked directly at Rune. "You are enjoying your drink, yes?"

"Don't see me complaining, do you? What's with the free booze anyway?" Rune questioned the sheik curiously.

He took his hand away from Raja and strode over to Rune, placing his hands upon the esper instead, familiarly. He leant down a bit and chuckled. "I have seen lots of people come in here needing a drink, but never as much as you. Been having a bad day? We all have them sometimes. You hang in there, my friend."

The sheik brushed his cloak over his white-robed shoulder and headed for the exit. The three protectors watched him go silently. "…Wow. What was that all about?" Hahn asked Rune and laughed. "Do strange men in bars _often_ buy you drinks, Rune?"

Before a backdrop of Raja chortling away Rune asked in a soft, deadly voice; "What exactly are you insinuating?"

Hahn backed off the subject. "Hey, I'm just kidding. Take a joke." He sweatdropped.

Rune could not take a joke. This was displayed soon after when Hahn cried out in surprise and had ice tossed down someplace that was both uncomfortable and outrageously funny. Fortunately, Raja was around to give the scene the full attention that it deserved.

Outside the Pao Pao the day aged and the sky turned to dull red fire.

Night would come soon.

†††

"In the beginning, I didn't think that anything had gone wrong. I had just been shot, there was a brief pain which cut short into numbness, so the only logical explanation I had was that I had been successfully killed. This was death, it was dark and empty and scary, just like I had always heard and read about. I expected a lot of things, like meeting the Light or the Darkness for judgement or something like that. I even thought I might fade away and become nothing at all. Basically I expected something to happen, but it didn't."

It had been a short time since Mieus had managed to get Warren to stop crying and now they were both sitting on the long metal operating table, like children on a fence. Warren was still nervously trying to get used to the bright lights in the room, the loud voices and other overpowering stimuli. To Mieus the lights were dim and fuzzy and they were speaking only a few shades above whispers. She didn't have anything to say, couldn't really think of any words of comfort but it seemed comforting enough to listen. She _did_ hold his hand though, that seemed to help a bit.

"Nothing happened. For a thousand years, nothing at all. I began to get worried. What if something had gone wrong and they had forgotten about me? With the war going on lots of people were dying, I might have slipped through the cracks of the cosmic reassignment system. Every android is atheist until they die, I think. I was willing to believe in _anything_ as long as things would stop standing still and I could go on my way. After a while even hell was beginning to look appealing when compared to the dark."

"I was terrified of it. It drove me mad. Over and over again, slipping into madness, then sanity and back again. I must have done that a hundred times just to escape the horrors of the dark. I started to _see_ things in the darkness, stuff that couldn't possibly be real. Feverish hallucinations, fragments of the past. Lots of blood and palman body parts. You're lucky you managed to revive me when I was in a 'sane' phase, or you might have had a gibbering or screaming idiot to deal with instead of myself."

Mieus didn't really want to know the precise details of what he had seen. If it had been enough to frighten a military officer, who had already seen the grotesque horrors of war into madness, then little Mieus who had committed small yet morbid crimes would not be able to truly cope or appreciate it. But, like a mangled spaceship wreck the question and the curiosity were right there, waiting to be said.

She changed the subject instead, to something else she had an interest in. Warren seemed wretched, tired, more than ever like a prisoner released from his cell for the first time and wondering where to go from there. "So those charges against you, were they real too?" She questioned softly.

Warren looked at her strangely, not badly, but like he was surprised she appeared uncertain about it. He had gotten so used to people blaring at him about his guilt that it made him pause and consider what Mieus had said. "Uh, I suppose so. Maybe. It depends on how you look at it. I changed sides, stole information, plotted along with the Sa Ruik clan, but the murder… I _swear_ to you it was an accident. I would _never_ kill a person intentionally outside of a war zone."

"What happened? Did somebody discover your secret so you had to shut them up? I would certainly kill then, it'd serve the little snoop right for poking into my business." The red-haired girl smiled. Oh, to be around during an exciting war instead of this boring old space station! Imagine the organized chaos, the fighting, all that _life_! Why did she have to be created in _this_ era, when all that was asked of her was to be seen and not heard? Some things were so unfair, she thought.

Mieus had a thoroughly romanticized view of warfare, while Warren had seen more than enough of the ugly side of war to understand it. To hate it. He let go of Mieus' hand and ran his own over his face briefly. He had thought about it over and over again the past thousand years, there had been nothing else to do.

"We were being shot at, the Sa Ruik clan and I in the deepest depths of Motavia's sprawling external memory, Paseo's central tower. The rebels had to escape. I stayed behind to return fire and give the allied forces a target to focus upon. I remember it very well, as if it had happened yesterday. When the colonel came into range I thought I could drive them away by threatening their commander. It was my intention to wing him, give him a slight flesh wound to think about, but the very moment I raised my rifle and fired I was hit in the shoulder by an enemy blast, throwing off my aim."

"Instead of winging him you shot him in the throat. You killed him. Darling, that wasn't your fault. I hope you know that." Mieus told him, hopping off the table. She wondered if Siren was becoming impatient with their procrastination, but she wasn't going to lead Warren out of the cell until he was ready for it. As soon as his cognitive capacity was back around optimal levels he would be okay.

"Oh, yes. Of course. I'm aware of that. I just wish it had never happened. I still would have been executed but at least Colonel Finley wouldn't have died. In the service he was always good to me." For a moment it seemed like Warren was going to start crying all over again, but the feeling passed and he just looked wistfully sad. "Gods, this is all so hard to take in. So much darkness, so much time, and now everything suddenly rushes towards me all at once. I just don't know what to do with it all."

"You should talk to my master. It was only through his will that you're alive and moving again. You need to thank him for his generosity. After all," Mieus flashed him a truly winning, faithful smile, "now we can find our purpose of which we were denied."

"Our purpose…" Warren repeated numbly, trying to force himself out of his melancholic daze. He had only ever had one true purpose, given to him by his first master. That order and purpose had sunk so deeply into his core that it had become a part of his very being. Siren would have understood that feeling quite well. His purpose was only to help people, to save and better other people's lives whenever he had the opportunity. He shook his head slowly. "Alright. Let's see if I can still stand up and walk, or if I've forgotten how."

He shifted and tried to get his feet back on the ground. Warren's motions were clumsy and uncertain, like he expected to wind up prone on the floor rather than standing up straight. Mieus didn't help him. It was important for him to test the functions of his limbs and balance on his own. He wobbled a bit but remained upright, then took a few careful steps towards the open door. Siren's reinstallation of his equalizers was successful. The rehabilitation had only just begun, but Mieus thought he would be okay.

Despite the success Warren still leaned against the wall in case it had been a lucky fluke. With a bit of good fortune they'd soon have him running again and dodging blasts just like in the old days. Mieus stepped over to him and peeked out of the corridor for a moment. Siren was down the hallway and starting off into space just as his series type were wont to do. Patience within impatience, she guessed.

Mieus nearly jumped a meter into the air when Warren laid a hand on her shoulder. He didn't know that she was a little skittish about being touched so she could forgive him for that, but Mieus wished that she could get a bit of a warning next time. "Eek!" She squeaked, then readjusted her voice and said in a more normal tone; "what is it?"

She spun around and was surprised and pleased to see Warren smiling at her, for the first time since he had woken up. He had a very open, honest smile about him. "I really am alive again, aren't I? It's not just a dream. I can trust you, right?" He took his other hand off the wall and gripped her other shoulder, trusting Mieus completely with his balance. Warren thought for a moment about to say what was on his mind, then decided to just go for it. What could he lose? "Um… Mieus? I don't remember very well, but I think… um, did you kiss me earlier?"

He was asking a lot of questions, to which Mieus only had one answer for all of them. More than anything else she enjoyed his nervous shyness and the attention paid onto her. Because of that she didn't really mind him touching her. "Yes. Of course, darling." She said.

"Oh. Okay then. I wasn't certain." Warren admitted to her, bravely trying to make sense of a confusing situation. He was grateful to the other wren-type he had seen earlier, the one who had revived him, but Mieus had been the one he identified first and so he bore some sort of illogical attachment to her. He couldn't get past her. It was no time to stand still, he had been doing that for far too long.

"Thank you for helping me, Mieus. Nobody has helped me for so long that I… I had forgotten what it felt like." He murmured to her bashfully, leaning down to kiss her gently on the cheek. Before Mieus could react Warren had already let go of her and was tentatively making his way out of the room, his steps becoming progressively more confident as time wore on. The girl blinked once. She hadn't quite counted on being kissed back. Perhaps the wren wasn't quite as timid as he had at first appeared.

Siren heard them coming long before Mieus and Warren could reach him. He had been loitering beside a cell door and thinking of the Le Cille girl he encountered just before the layans had evacuated the station. Such a small android emblazoned with the red mark of Laya. What could that possibly mean? What purpose could it serve? All Siren knew was that whatever it was he could not condone it. There was something inherently _wrong_ about combining the two houses of Le Cille and Sa Ruik, twisted and not right. Not right at all.

__

He

was the only exception to the rule, always and forever.

Before he knew it the two androids were there in front of him, waiting for him to say something. He had already dealt with Mieus earlier and knew where he stood with her, but the other wren-type needed to be processed as well. The warren only had two certain futures, two paths for him to take. He could either submit to his will and way, or he could opt to go back into his deep and eternal sleep. A _real_ sleep this time, not even Siren was cruel enough to reintroduce him to that old torture. The warren seemed functional enough to make a competent decision for himself. It was time to choose.

"So you are Warren six hundred and eighty three, or Warren McCulloch as you seemingly prefer to be called. How should I address you? Doctor or Major?" Siren announced curtly, coldly, and impassively.

At the mention of his military title Warren straightened himself up quick smart. Siren was quite an imposing presence and five years of service made Warren want to treat Siren like a superior, but he was an officer and he had to act as such. He did not take a submissive stance just yet. "Either one would do me fine, but in the end all you need do is call me Warren. That's my name, after all."

Siren folded his arms and smirked in amusement. He watched Mieus sidle away from the two male androids to get a nice clear view of what was about to happen. If Siren could get a few good minutes of time with somebody he could usually read them like a book, androids included. Believe it or not, they were far easier to figure out than any living palman. "I have several questions for you, Warren. Two of them are most important to me. Depending on how you answer them you will either be free to live your life or you will be relegated back to your cell. Do you understand?"

"Perfectly. I'll try to be truthful."

"Do you have an ID code in which to access Zelan's secure information files? Have you worked on this space station before?"

Warren barely had to dwell on the question. He could hardly erase those months of angry, frustrating impatience. "Sure. I mean, I'm not sure if the computers would accept my ID now after so many years but I would be more than happy to try. I used to process meteorological forecasts for Motavia and Dezoris. It wasn't a very glamorous job." He chuckled.

"You were a weather man?" Mieus inquired innocently from the side.

"Yeah. It was my version of retirement. When I was discharged from the service they couldn't rightly throw away a war veteran, so they stuck me out of sight and mind here on Zelan with a few other android vets to work with. I never liked it very much, but I had nowhere else to go. My family had been relegated to the worldships prior to the war. I had to stay behind."

Hearing of the ID code was very reassuring. It meant he wouldn't have to go through the process of resuscitation all over again. Siren enjoyed nothing more than tinkering with machines but business _always_ came before pleasure. He had a feeling that the layans would come back. They needed to be prepared for it. "I am under the impression you served the house of Sa Ruik at some point. Is this true? Are you an Orakian as I am?"

"I'm not sure what an Orakian is, but I was on okay terms with the Sa Ruik clan. I met Riketz Sa Ruik during the war, did some very hasty shrapnel-removing surgery on him, then I was discharged and joined his clan soon after. Up until I was executed I was his friend, not his servant." Warren frowned all of a sudden, like something small had irritated him. "He never came to save me from the firing squad. Nobody did, but I expected as much. Did you know Riketz?"

"Not Riketz, his son Orakio. I know of the elder Sa Ruik only because my master spoke often of his father. I suppose you are an honest orakian, Major. I needed to be certain of that." It was no small thing to be friends with the father of his master. It did not really matter a thousand years in the future, but they had found a stable link to the past in which they could orient themselves upon.

Warren bowed his head a little and appeared to be thinking deeply, sorting through old memories coated in a thick layer of dust. It was the tiny, fragmented memories that were the hardest to keep track of. Also, he wasn't quite sure why but it felt like he was thinking in a completely different way to what he was used to. It was the same result but a different process, the new operating system working flawlessly within his mind. Not his own way. Siren's way.

All of a sudden he looked up again and smiled brightly. "Ah, little Orakio! I remember, Riketz showed me a photograph of him and his brother once. He was a kid with dark hair, slightly serious-looking. Wasn't he sent to the worldships during the exodus of Palma?"

"Yes." Siren replied simply. "Enough small talk. Mieus, get up. We will head for the bridge and unlock Zelan from within. I trust you will be of use to us, Major."

Mieus started to climb to her feet by herself but Warren offered her his hand and she took it without thinking. The wren-type thought that the best way to get himself back into optimal condition was through work. He missed working, even mindless tedium would be a blessing right now. Later on he would try to come to terms with his memories, preferably when he was alone. "You brought me back to life. I would do anything that you asked of me." He intoned softly. "I'd like to help you."

That was exactly what Siren wanted to hear. Together the three of them, the two men and one woman left the storage blocks and their overwhelming atmosphere of death, back to Zelan's control area which was brightly lit and animated. The flashing, pulsing lights gave the illusion of motion, of functionality. Mieus clung to Warren's arm this time instead of her master, which suited Siren just fine. She'd keep him from falling over should his legs suddenly fail him.

Whatever secrets Zelan held for Siren were beginning to become unlocked even before Warren spoke of his ID code. There were many different ways to get at classified information and controls. He knew that Zelan held some kind of mastery over Algo's weather, and he knew that the layan would want this place back badly for the damage that it could do in the wrong hands. Not all damage could be bad though, some of it could be cleansing. Algo needed to be cleansed of the layan scum and the Great Light had seen it fit to lend him this powerful weapon. He did not believe in coincidence.

The major was looking all around Zelan as they walked towards the control area, as if to reacquaint what he was seeing with the memories in his data banks. After a thousand years hardly anything had changed. The only difference was the vast echoing emptiness. What had happened to all the people? Usually whenever you walked down this hallway you couldn't help but bump into a scientist or a friend, or both. Zelan had been a two hundred-strong force of hard workers, androids and intellectuals. They were all gone.

Time held a cruel, gnawing hunger for life. Warren had avoided it by existing on the edge of time but it made him want to cry again thinking about all the things he had missed, all the friends he had lost. He slipped into a seat in front of one of the central control computers and detected Siren and Mieus taking their places standing and behind him. The computer came online smoothly. He started to type. "I hope I still remember the code." He said to himself and the others quietly.

"For your sake you had better." Siren replied in a threatening, yet subdued voice.

"I'll try my best, sir." Without even realizing it Warren had begun to address the elder wren-type with a respectful honorific. He accessed Zelan's mainframe and selected a program restricted by the ID system, the climate manipulation program. This was way out of his old jurisdiction but to hell with it, who was going to stop him now?

He entered his eighteen digit ID code into the computer and expected to be denied access. It had been too long, and because of his criminal record they were sure to have deleted all his computer clearance. Warren hit the enter key and waited. He was mildly surprised. "Oh, it went through. We're in."

"Move over." Siren snapped and pushed Warren out of the seat. There it was, access to all of Zelan's various functions. Limited read-only mode had been deactivated. He memorized the ID code for further reference. They could alter climate, some short-term weather patterns, had a dedicated connection to all other facilities within Algo and that was only scratching at the surface. It was Algo's ultimate seat of power, and it was all his. "Yes, this is exactly what I wished to see. Thank you, Warren."

He climbed out of the seat and as if he were in his own world Siren wandered toward the most central part of the control area. Zelan's mammoth computer brain towered above them like an ancient colossus. Large plexiglas windows around the station let in the stars and the oily blackness of space. The red-haired android turned sharply on his heel and regarded the only two people in Algo he had no inclination to hate. Warren and Mieus were holding hands, like they were about to be involved in something they couldn't possibly do alone.

"My dream is my master's dream. My purpose was my master's purpose. Lord Orakio Sa Ruik may be slain but his ambitions and determination live on within me. I will never allow Dark Force to come back into this world, I will kill all who worship Him and send them to the Great Light for their judgement. The layan race shall be destroyed." He looked out the window. From there he could see Motavia floating in the sea of space, much like the dirty brown pebble that it was.

Siren calmed himself, kept his sermonic attitude in check. But this was to be the beginning of a new world order, so they must forgive him for a little zealotry. "…I am many things, but I am not mad. I know that I cannot accomplish this great and terrible feat on my own. I require servants to carry out my will and my way. From now on there will only ever be _one_ true way. What say you souls who have been exiled from the worlds for your crimes?"

Mieus reacted first. She detached herself from Warren's side and slowly walked towards the central area, toward her master and the one who had set her free. When she got to about five feet away from him she sunk down to her knees, kneeling in subservience to her master. "Many people have said that they loved me but in the end it all turned out to be lies. I don't need love, I need a reason to live. If you can give that to me, Master Siren, then I would follow you to the ends of this galaxy and beyond. I swear to serve you faithfully."

"I can give that to you, Mieus, I swear it on my honor." Siren intoned respectfully to his servant. All of a sudden this had become a ritual, an induction into something that would both be horrible and wonderful. Algo had not seen this likes of this in well over a thousand years.

Warren was next. He hesitated, because he could feel the heavy gravity and seriousness of the situation. The last time he had bought into an organization such as this it had gotten him killed. He didn't want to go through that for a second time. However, on the other hand, and from the small part of himself that had come from Siren, deep down he was bitter and angry, wanted revenge for the hideous punishment he had endured which far outweighed his crimes.

This was his only future. There was nothing else. Warren walked up toward Siren and dropped to one knee beside Mieus. He had spent his life serving others, this would be no different. "Despite what I have done with myself I am not a special person. Compared to other wren-types I am unintelligent, undisciplined, far too emotional, and untrustworthy. I am only a good fighter and a good surgeon. If you have use for my services you can have them, and if you can give me a new life to lead then I would gladly take it. Master Siren, you brought me back from the dead. For that I swear to serve you faithfully."

He was selling himself short, but that humility was another sign of a good servant. Everybody had their uses, Siren would figure one out for the major soon enough. He smiled. "I can give that to you, Warren, I swear it on my honor. Stand, the both of you."

They stood in perfect sync, awaiting further instruction. Like brother and sister, or like a close couple. "With the life I have returned to your bodies you will use it to serve me for the rest of your days. Until I choose to release you, or until death takes you. Do you consent to these terms?"

"Yes, Master Siren." Mieus and Warren said in unison, mechanically.

Siren seemed pleased. This reminded him of that stormy night so long ago, when he and Mium had pledged their lives to Lord Orakio. He saw a part of himself in this second generation of loyal vassals. "Very well. From this moment onwards you will be my faithful disciples, and the both of you are bound as partners. I trust that you will get along well with one another. Are there any objections?"

Warren and Mieus both considered the proposal. Being bound into servitude was something they had expected, but they had not anticipated being bound to _each other_. Mieus had always been alone her entire life, and Warren had had comrades but never a partner. The pair looked at each other for a few moments. It wouldn't be so bad. It wasn't as if they _hated_ one another or anything. They liked each other.

"I asked for Warren to be brought back to life, so I'll take good care of him. I promise." Mieus pledged to her master with a pretty, sincere smile.

"Mieus and I will be very happy together." Warren reassured him, hoping he would be telling the truth. He hadn't known that it had been Mieus' idea to bring him back to life. That was rather kind of her.

"Soon enough I believe the layans who have guarded this space station will return. Three palmans, two androids, one dezorian, and one female of unknown species. They are all layans or layan sympathizers. We will let them back on Zelan and we will slaughter them." Siren laughed shortly and cruelly. Immediately all the tension, all the ritual atmosphere of the room was gone. To the two servants it was a relief. The elder wren-type strode up to them and planted one hand on Warren's shoulder, the other on Mieus'.

"We do have some time left before they arrive. I am going to use it to get acquainted with this station's computer system. You two should spend your time getting prepared for combat. Warren, many of your missing parts are back in your cell. Go and take what you need. Mieus will go with you. Tell me, have the both of you ever killed anybody before? Up close and personal?"

This question placed a catlike smile on Mieus' lips and a slight air of defensiveness in Warren's attitude. The girl tossed some hair over her shoulder proudly. "That's that only way to do it right, Master. I've done it lots of times. If you ask me to do it again I won't disappoint you." Her tone dropped, becoming smooth and sultry. "We're here because we _all_ are murderers."

"I've never had any reason to keep track of them, but surely my rank says enough. I didn't become a major by shooting at birds." Warren muttered as quietly as he could, having virtually the opposite reaction as his partner. The only pride he had ever held in the trenches and jungles was the pride of keeping his friends healthy and alive. He had happily kept track of all the people he had saved, both inside the war and out. It kept him going, reminded him that he really _was_ making a difference.

Siren moved back to the computer, which sung and beckoned to him silently with its comfortingly flickering screen. He had no fears, no anxiety. There was no need for anything but confidence when one was protected and supported by the Great Light itself. "Good. Then I am certain that there will be no problems when you kill again for Lord Orakio's sake, for your master's sake." He turned back to look at them with a steely gaze. "Go on, you are dismissed. Do not waste your time."

A nod and a salute.

"Yes Master."

"Sir."

Siren's way had begun.


	16. Day's End

The sun was beginning to set and the world was turning to twilight as Rika and Demi came back to the Ashley house with brown paper grocery bags as their evening prize. They had bought a little more than they probably should have but that was the problem with the marketplace; there were just so much interesting items there that you always brought home things you hadn't quite needed or had even known existed. Chaz had left the door unlocked for the girls so Rika didn't have to use her key. Little Demi was dwarfed further by the big bags she was carrying in her arms.

They went inside and dumped all the groceries on the bench in the kitchen, then started to unpack. Rika thought it was useful to have a little helper around to make things easier for her and they had both enjoyed the shopping together, but she wondered why Demi was clinging to her like a shadow instead of spending time with her master. He had vanished as soon as they had walked into town. Nobody knew where he had gone. Nobody really wanted to find out.

Rika had bought all the fixings for ollaka rolls so she hoped nobody had an aversion to that particular kind of meat. It had been so long that she couldn't quite remember, but she knew that it was one of Chaz's favorite meals. He'd been hurt badly on Zelan so she wanted to make him feel better in any way that she could. Dinner for five people instead of just two, she hoped she had gotten the ingredient ratios right. "Hey Demi, would you like to help me cook?" She asked her friend.

"Of course." The girl said distantly, but she smiled anyway. Together they cut up the vegetables and prepared the meat, spicing it slightly for a little extra flavor. Demi was quite good at cutting up the vegetables but Rika cooked the meat herself, browning it through in the skillet. After a while a delicious aroma started to emerge from the kitchen. When the boys came back to the house they'd have a little something to settle their stomachs after all that drinking in the bar.

"Are you okay, Demi?" Rika asked, listening to the chirps of the cicadas wafting in from the bushes outside. A gentle dusk wind breezed through the open window and brought with it the scent of eucalyptus. Demi looked at her from the stool she was kneeling on so she could reach the bench. She wasn't very good at hiding her emotions away from other people, her face was like an open book and the illustration was bleak. It looked like she needed a hug most of all.

She finished slicing the lettuce and put the big knife down on the cutting block. Ever since the worldship had come back into Algo everything had gone wrong. Her master had crept into a grumpier and grumpier mood and she could not help him. That crazy Siren had attacked them all and she had not been able to stop it. They had lost Zelan and it was all her fault. She should have been able to _do_ something, her inadequacy was her weakness. "…I feel like I've failed in some dire way. It's my fault we lost Zelan."

Didn't they already go over this back on the Landale? Maybe Demi still needed more convincing. "If it weren't for you we wouldn't have survived the night. Don't judge yourself so harshly, you can't do everything at once and hope to be perfect at it all." Rika cleaned some of the utensils under the faucet in the sink as she talked. "Tomorrow, when we fly back to Zelan you'll see that no harm has been done. It's not the end of the world."

"But Master Wren has blocked me on his wireless communications network. He won't let me contact him. He must be _very_ angry with me." The android girl continued sadly, taking up the knife again and slicing some carrots now. So much had happened that she couldn't fix and now here she was cutting up root vegetables. It was absurd. Wren had never blocked her from contacting him before, never once in her life. It was very hurtful, she wanted to go and find him so she could apologize right away. Maybe then he'd let her talk to him once again.

Rika finished what she was doing, dried her hands with a dishcloth and put her arms around her little friend, giving Demi a squeezing hug. It wasn't like hugging a living person, that was true, but hopefully it would mean something to the girl. "Now listen, you can't beat yourself up over something you can't control. Wren might be your master but he's not a perfect person either. Losing Zelan must have really shocked him, kicked him in a place where he didn't expect to feel pain. You just have to give men space when their pride has been hurt, there's nothing else for it. They need time to lick their wounds."

Demi remembered how she had felt when Zio had walked onto the scene and had stolen Nurvus away from her. Bound in chains made of living flesh she had watched and was made aware of the destruction the dark esper had caused to Motavia. There had been nothing she could do and for many days she just hung there in shock and denial. It just hurt her so much to know that her master was experiencing a similar injustice and there was nothing to be done about it. She was glad Rika was hugging her now, it really seemed to help.

The only thing she could be glad of was that at least nobody had been captured, nobody had been imprisoned like she once had. Siren didn't seem like the kind of android who would take prisoners, but still the concept of her master as prisoner to that twisted version of himself streamed through her mind. Siren did not like to capture, but he _did_ seem like he'd enjoy torture. Demi closed her eyes and mimicked a sigh. "Rika? If anything happened to my master I wouldn't know what to do."

"We all feel that way about our partners. I'd feel the same way if anything happened to Chaz. With his wound I'd almost ask him to stay here at home and wait for me to come back safely, but Chaz has the freedom to do whatever he wants. We're not married just yet. He would come with us just to make sure I'd stay safe." Rika broke the hug with Demi and straightened up again. She smiled. "He's very stubborn like that."

Demi's pale green eyes widened in surprise, unsure if the numan girl was serious or not, then she started to laugh. It was light, childish laughter, cute and sweet, making her seem like an eight year old girl rather than the three and a quarter centuries she had under her belt. Suddenly her sadness was gone. "Partner?" She giggled. "_Partner_? Master Wren is _not_ my partner. Heavens no, the idea is ridiculous!"

"Oh, I just assumed because you serve him and all…" Rika explained, mentally scrambling to find out what was so funny.

She ceased the giggling and smiled in the bright, vivacious manner that seemed more typical of her. "Partner implies mutual contribution to a goal and shared respect. I serve Master Wren because he created me. The balance is _meant_ to be uneven so I can repay him for the life that he put into my body. I am bound to that until he deems my service sufficient and releases me, then I will finally become an independent construct free to do whatever I wish. In short, he is my father."

Rika just stared. Everybody needed a parent figure with which to orient themselves on if they wanted to be a properly functioning member of society, but she hadn't thought that rule applied to androids as well. After the destruction of Mother Brain they probably would have had to reorganize creation for themselves, on a much smaller scale. Still, Rika couldn't imagine Wren being a parent to _anybody_, though he had been an exceptionally fine teacher to her. "He did a good job because you are a wonderful person, Demi." She reassured her.

The little girl's smile faded and she went back to the task at hand, namely, preparing the salad for the ollaka wraps. Not wanting to look at Rika as she said this Demi muttered; "That may be so, but I only wish I could have been half as good a parent as Wren was to me. I educated Mieus in the same manner in which he educated me… but there is no possible way we could be more different from one another. I have never been able to understand what went wrong."

When it came to raising another living being nobody could be faultless. Rika was quite sure that even her own creator Seed had made only a few base guidelines for her design and the specifics had been up to chance and genes. You can manipulate gene coding, DNA and stuff like that, but a creator could never build a soul. _That_ was determined by a much higher power. For the ten seconds of which she had seen Mieus awake it hadn't seemed like she had much of a sense of self at all.

"You said she killed a whole lot of people once. How did that happen?" Rika pried, trying not to stick her nose too deeply into other people's business but also trying to understand Demi's feelings toward her savage daughter. Daughter. Wow, Rika never would have thought she'd ever use that word in conjunction with her little mechanical friend.

"I'm still not entirely clear of what happened that day myself." Demi confessed with a small halfhearted shrug. "I was concerned with a system check of Nurvus' communication pathways and Mieus must have gotten bored of the facility and wandered away. She walked into a small village that would have been part of eastern Kadary were it around today and later that night she slaughtered all the people within. Not a single villager was spared, she killed them all."

She continued, trying to keep herself separate from the horrible events she was describing. "On estimation it must have been about seventy to a hundred people murdered that day. As a mieu-type Mieus had a highly developed martial combat program, it was very easy for her to rip out throats and hearts and other vital palman organs. I never went to see the village for myself so I did not witness her handiwork, Master Wren went to check it out for himself. He never quite told me everything that he saw, but when he returned he was covered in dried blood and gore and immediately put Mieus to sleep. I don't know why she killed those people, all that mattered was that she had."

"Demi…" Rika said, helplessly.

She smiled. "It's okay. It was well over twenty years ago and I'm not the kind of android who becomes depressed beyond recognition because of the past. Mieus was a good girl but she never really understood the consequences of her actions or the difference between right and wrong. I wish I had created her in a less dangerous shell. It might have made all the difference."

"I never quite thought of you as the sort of person with a dysfunctional daughter, or with a daughter at all. Why did you make her?" Rika questioned as she turned back to the bench and rolled up the ollaka meat and salad in very thin bread. Demi had wanted to avoid the subject last night on Zelan, while her master was around, but now that he had blocked her out of his world things were different. She was more inclined to speak about personal things when it was only Rika and herself, cooking in the early evening.

It was quite a good question, actually. "I don't really know. I thought that if Master Wren could build an android from nothing I should be able to do the same. Wren is a nice companion but he lacks much of the personality that he gave up in the past. Perhaps I was getting lonely and I wanted to laugh with somebody again. Selfish, I suppose."

Demi looked to her pink-haired friend. Since she had come home she'd changed her ripped dress to pants and a blouse. She was wearing a little apron over those clothes. "Do you think you will ever have children, Rika?"

"Chaz and I haven't really discussed it. Possibly, but not any time soon. There's far too much stuff to be done. Do you think we'd make good parents?" They were far too young anyway. Chaz was still just a teenager and Rika was just over four years old. If the neighbors knew her _real_ age she could only imagine what the gossip would be like. To her new friends and the people of Aiedo she was eighteen, no ifs or buts about it.

"I'm not the best judge of character in that regard." Demi giggled and climbed off her stool. One thing that she had always wanted to ask Wren but never have the courage to was about her height. Why did he make her so small? It seemed rather unnecessary. "But you are both young and adequately matched. I will hope to hear the news in the years ahead."

"You won't have to wait very long for Hahn and Saya. I met Saya in Krup last month. She seemed very excited about it." The numan girl added, the conversation very quickly turning into eager gossip. Hahn and his family were really the only protectors she and Chaz could keep close contact with. Technically Gryz's village of Molcum was closer, but motavians were a skittish people who didn't trust strangers. Sending messages there was difficult.

They finished preparing the food and set the dinner away for later, a meal for five. Rika covered it with a long piece of cheesecloth to keep anything undesirable off it and beamed at Demi. "Hey, let's go hang up that other thing we got at the market. Let's see if anybody notices it when they come in for their meal."

Oh yes, the thing. Rika had spotted it between a spice rack and an oil lamp in a travelling peddler's stall, she and Demi had spent a good fifteen minutes trying to figure out what it was. It was a painting, that was certain, but the picture it was portraying was largely a mystery. The two girls had decided that the only way to solve the mystery was to buy the painting, hang it up somewhere and unlock the mystery at their own leisure. Demi thought that it was abstract art symbolizing some deep intrinsic emotion, possibly anger, while Rika thought that it was a painting of a sunset, albeit by somebody who preferred to paint with their feet.

Well, at least the frame looked nice. Chaz would probably roll his eyes at the purchase but he'd be one to talk, after spending all that money on those souvenirs from Termi. They hung the painting right across from the doorway, so it would be the very first thing that their guests would get to see when they came inside. Demi conceived an idea. "Does the picture have a signature? I hear that many artists sign their work to assure their authenticity."

"Hold on, let me check." Rika said and inspected the painting carefully, looking for a name. There was nothing pencilled or penned on the back of the canvas and looking for writing on the picture itself was like searching for a white flag in a sandstorm. Luckily Rika had good eyesight and after a minute she caught it on the top right hand corner of the canvas, upside-down, painted in bright yellow on a slightly darker yellow surface. She cocked her head to the side to read it properly. "…Dorin. Somebody named Dorin. Also, we've hung it upside down."

Demi blinked. "How could we have known? It is a picture of chaos." The android reached up and stood on her tiptoes, taking the painting off the peg and turning it right way up. She paused, looking at it as it was meant to be, then wrinkled her nose cutely and flipped it around again. "It appears nicer when it's upside down." She commented and stuck it back on the wall. Demi was no art critic but on this she was correct.

Both girls laughed, and time went on.

†††

When the company of protectors had walked from Nalya into Aiedo one of them had broken away from the group and had crept off on their own. Wren hadn't wanted to spend time with the others, receive their pity or anything else that they would choose to shower upon him. He didn't need it. No, all he needed was for time to pass so they could get back onto the Landale and retake Zelan from Siren. Anything which did not relate to that goal was pointless. Still, when the sun set he'd go into town and find the others, or else they might come out and start looking for him instead.

Wren had gone for a walk into the forested foothills north of the town, where farther up a passageway through the mountains would guide a team of travelers all the way into Kadary. He had taken a seat on a rock somewhere and waited and watched for the stars to come out. It was very quiet and peaceful up there, he, the only piece of the civilized world in the midst of raw, unprocessed nature. Not even biomonsters lived in the foothills anymore. Not enough large, sizable food.

He didn't see any animate signs of life for a very long time, which was eventually broken by a small grey squirrel who watched him with squirrely interest for about ten minutes before getting bored and scampering away. Not that he was looking for anybody to talk to, he was just carefully observing his surroundings should he be attacked by a group of enemies.

So, Zelan had been taken over. It was not like the last time control had been usurped from his hands, remotely from Kuran. Wren had never actually been physically kicked out of his home. He was not used to such a lack of control. When Kuran had overpowered Zelan there had been nothing he could do about it on his own, it had been out of his power and therefore out of his ability to feel guilty over it. It hadn't been his fault. This time, after all that had transpired, the fault was solely his.

It had been his own fault for awakening Siren and then greatly underestimating his powers. He should have paid closer attention to Rune's agitation. Moreover, Wren had had the chance to stay on Zelan and deal with Siren without the hindrance of his friends nearby, but he had foolishly declined. In saving Demi he had willingly signed his space station over to the enemy. Why in Algo had he done that? Demi was only one person and Zelan held the key to the survival of hundreds and thousands of people. He had not had the chance to think, he merely acted.

Perhaps, deep down, he really _was_ a fool. If he could go back in time and replay the moment correctly, or if he had been given one extra second to think about it, he would not be in this sorry mess. Demi would have died but that was not important; she was replaceable. Zelan was not. All he would have needed to do was take a fresh dubbing from the mind of her donor. It was simple. She was indeed a good servant, sometimes he thought that maybe he did not let her know it enough. Perhaps later, after Siren was destroyed he would tell her what he thought.

Demi was a curious little chimera of an android. Wren wondered that if he were to tell her the honest truth of her composition she might hate him for it. Surely she would at least be horrified. The difference between Demi of the second generation and Mieus of the third generation had been tiny but fundamental. It explained why she had been a success in terms of sanity and behavior while Mieus had been a resounding failure. In this new millennium only one or two people might know the truth, the reason _why_ android had souls.

It was a bloody and terrifying truth indeed. Many centuries ago, when Wren still had his personality and emotions he'd shudder to think of it.

Mieus did not have a soul. She only acted with convincing feeling and emotion because that was what her programming told her to do. Wren had even doubted her sentience sometimes. It had not made him sorry to see her go to sleep, there was no need for a failure among his company. The only thing he regretted was that it had hurt Demi. He knew, he could detect the sadness in her face.

Feelings and emotion, personality, they were all superfluous. He had enjoyed them when he was young, it had been rewarding to be happy, or sad, or angry, but over the years the negative emotions began to outweigh the positive ones. Algo was dying. Through the stupid gung-ho actions of his friend it had been his duty to watch it fade. Wren had to get rid of that part of himself or risk going insane from caring too much. Things had become easier when his figurative heart went cold. It was the only way to remain the system control for a dying star.

He had crippled his own soul, but it was a soul nevertheless. The things he experienced now in reaction to life were just faint, shadowy guidelines from that earlier time. Without it he would be less of an android and more of a robot. Despite what he lacked Chaz and the others still called him a friend. It meant something to him, though he was no longer enough of a person to appreciate it properly.

The sky was beginning to tint orange, the first few stars emerging in the waning light. He could see the faint outline of the Gladiator, in another hour or two the rest of the heavenly constellation would be visible to the people of Aiedo. If Wren left now he calculated he'd be back in town by nightfall, provided he kept a steady pace and was not hindered. Demi would worry if he stayed out here much longer.

Wren left. From the surface of Motavia a new star hung in the night sky, yet this one did not twinkle with its own generated light, it merely bounced back a pale reflection of Algo's own shine.

The Alisa Three, huge and lost, an ill omen to all.

†††

"I feel like a beggar trying on other people's old clothes. Gosh, this is shameful." Warren muttered as he tried to make sense of all the many parts left in his holding cell.

So many of his internal parts were missing and none of the parts dumped on the ground were originally his. When the government had arrested him they had removed all the parts relegated to combat, but even some parts he knew he had had when he walked out in front of the firing squad were now missing. Somebody had salvaged bits and pieces of his body after he had been executed, but while he was still alive.

"They don't manufacture parts for androids anymore, everything has to be installed second hand. A lot has changed since your time." Mieus answered from the entranceway of the cell, watching her new partner try to piece himself back together out of parts that didn't quite fit. He did not yet know that even his _mind_ had already been profoundly altered by an operating system which didn't belong to him. Mieus herself did not have anything pressing to do. She was intact and she was perfect, just as she should be.

It felt like he had been violated in some deep way, like a part of him had been cut out and stolen without his consent. As if the thousand year imprisonment wasn't punishment enough, he had been brought back into a body and mind that was not all there. Most of the parts he guessed he didn't miss, they were not important, but his medical power unit was also gone. Even during the days of Mother Brain it had been rare and hard to replace. His very first master had spent a large amount of money on it, on _him_, so he felt rather bad for losing it. It had been part of him, after all.

Warren sighed. If he had given up his emotions he wouldn't have cared, but the point was they were still there. Giving up and falling back onto cold, emotionless logic would mean giving up the very thing which made him an exceptional doctor and officer; the ability to care. To care about his comrades, and to care about his patients. The day that he stopped giving a damn was the day that he needed to hang up his rifle and scalpel for good.

He would never be the same Warren that he had been a thousand years ago; he had to accept that. All he needed to do now in the present was be a good servant, a good partner, and try to do the very best he could with the resources available to him. That should be enough. "The parts here will be satisfactory in bringing me back to optimal condition. Recovery unit, flare unit, barrier unit, spark defibrillator unit, these are all fine. After installation all I'll need to become combat ready is a gun."

"Would you like me to go get you one while you install those parts?" Mieus asked Warren sweetly, trying to be helpful. She knew of an armory room in block B where some guns were stored. Her grandfather had kept them in perfect working order should anyone ever need to use them. Now was a good time for some weaponry, though probably not for the purpose her grandfather had intended.

The major glanced up toward Mieus. He hadn't forgotten that she was there, but he had been slipping back into his own private world again. She looked exceptionally lovely standing there in the dim lights of the holding cell, turning her flame-red hair to a deep bronze. He rose from where he had been kneeling on the floor, several spare parts in his arms. These were the ones deemed most compatible with his system. "If it's not too much trouble I'd like that very much, Mieus." He told her with a smile.

"Sure, sweetie. I'll be quick." The girl promised and left the cell for block B, stepping so lightly down the corridor that her knee-high boots barely caused her footsteps to echo. She could feel sort of a warm feeling in her neural matrix, it made her want to smile and be happy and kind. Siren and Warren were giving her tasks to complete, things to do, so she finally had a purpose in this world. Warren was like her grandfather, a military android, but he was nice and pleasant while her grandfather had been cold and distant. She had liked him her entire life, and now he was finally able to like her back.

Now that the awareness was mutual, now that together they both served the same master, where should they go from there? Obviously, much of it was all up to Siren but she and Warren were partners now. That meant something, didn't it? She wanted to hear tales about the past, war stories, of blood and death and suffering. From his history surely he had a hundred interesting stories to tell.

She just wanted somebody different, somebody who would not be as cold and as heartless as her grandfather, who would put her to sleep callously without listening to her reason why.

Somebody who would never tell her that she didn't have a soul.

Mieus made her way into the armory and inspected the rack of various rifles, vulcans, and large heavy assault cannons. Zelan never had any reason to stock arms in the past, being a pacifist research satellite, but as more and more recycled military androids were staffed there the weapons just tended to pile up. She was also a little suspicious that either her mother or her grandfather liked to collect them as well. What kind of firearm did Warren say he was proficient with again? Mieus took a good-looking rifle off the rack and weighed it in her hands. A little too heavy for her, probably just right for a wren-type, she estimated.

When she got back to the holding cell with the rifle in her arms Warren was sitting back on the table, just as she and Siren had found him not that long ago. It appeared that he had installed the spare parts successfully, for the pieces were gone, but he now had a small metal box lying in his lap. It was no larger than a shoebox and Warren was looking into it listlessly. As Mieus stepped into the room the major looked up at her, raising a hand which contained a sterling silver chain. "Look at this," he said in a strange, slightly weak voice, "my dog tags are still here."

He had the dazed, knowing expression of somebody who was aware they had been shot but whose body had failed to register it just yet. Were he a palman his complexion would have gone a gaunt white. Those tags were to identify a soldier if they were killed in battle. Warren had never needed it; his own government had seen fit to slay him instead. The poor android had only just been brought back to life, he didn't need to be reminded so quickly of death. He smiled wanly. "My medals are here too, but one is missing. That's fine, I don't mind it…"

"You alright?" Mieus asked gently as she walked over to her partner, putting the rifle down on the table beside him. He had been so close to being back to normal again, but the very moment she had left him on his own he had slipped. The poor dear. The android girl reached up and pressed her hand against his cheek, then ran her fingers through his short brown hair. He leaned into the touch, and while he was distracted she deftly stole the dog tags away from him.

_'Property of Motavian military, branch three. If lost please return to Oputa Surgical Hospital. Theft or vandalism of government property is a federal offense. Violators will be court-martialled. Wren-type six hundred and eighty three.'_ His number only came after the initial disclaimer and warning. To the felled government he had only been just another piece of equipment.

"I know what you're thinking, but the palman soldiers had it no better." Warren said, as if he could read the processes of her mind. "They merely had their addresses and next of kin stamped upon their tags. I'm okay now Mieus, I just felt a little off-kilter for a moment. I found those tags and my medal and suddenly I was right there on the front lines again." He paused. "Not literally, of course."

If Mieus wanted to figure out where she stood in servitude to her master with her partner by her side she had best sort it out now. If she didn't do anything then she'd never quite know. "We're not palmans, we're androids. Why were we made to care about things? Why is it that only some of us care and some of us don't? What kind of benefit can there be to make us so close to palmans but just not there? So that we care, but we feel guilty when we do, like it's wrong or something."

"Maybe that's why we're meant to be extinct." Warren guessed quietly, then flinched as Mieus flung her arms around his shoulders and held onto him tightly. Because he was a little taller than her even when sitting on a table Mieus was lifted off her feet. Warren hugged her back, half reflexively, half because he really needed a hug. "Hey… it's okay. It's not wrong to feel things just because of what you are. It's never wrong. If anything it just makes you a better person, one that I'd be happy to call my partner."

"I brought you a gun."

"Thank you, Mieus."

She looked up at him, and when he smiled encouragingly at her she kissed him again. Warren had not expected this. When he realised what was going on he let go of her and pushed the girl away. Mieus wasn't bothered by this, it was the opening she needed to start that conversation. Warren didn't seem that bothered either, only he thought it right to push her away because he didn't know what she was getting at. Nobody had ever kissed him like _that_ before. "So what do you mean when you call me your partner?" Mieus asked him with reined curiosity.

He thought about it in rather an innocent way, standing up from his seat on the table and placing the metal box down beside the rifle. Warren was a battle android and though he had lost his war innocence long ago to blood, mortar and the screams of the dying, there were still multiple kinds of innocence. She had what he lacked, and he had what she lacked. "I don't know. Somebody to talk to and somebody to serve Master Siren with. Somebody nice to spend time with. You really don't have to kiss me if you don't want to."

"Why do you think I wouldn't want to? I like you, honey. I've always liked you, that's why I asked Master Siren to bring you back to life. You're interesting, you've seen war and the worst, bleakest part of this star system's history. Why shouldn't I be allowed to kiss you? You just said it was okay to feel things despite being an android. Were you lying just now?" Mieus reasoned, wagging a finger at him as she spoke. It wasn't enough just to have a friend as a fellow servant, she wanted a _real_ partner. It was, if anything, a way to feel alive again.

"There's nothing to be proud about living in that kind of chaos." Warren tried to explain to her, but Mieus just couldn't understand. Only somebody who had lived through it could understand. If Siren's plans on destroying the layan race came to fruition perhaps then she would see what he meant and would not take war as lightly as she did. He was a little flattered that she liked him so much, though for the life of him he couldn't figure out why. He took her by the hand and gave in. "…Alright. I take it this partnership won't be strictly work-based, then. I'm fine with that. I do like you too."

She smirked and pulled him down to her height, kissing him again. It just felt right. This time Warren didn't try to push her away, he let her do whatever she wanted with him. Mieus was a slightly spoiled girl, it was just better if she got her way. Once she pulled away from him, let go of his hand and the side of his neck she took a few steps back and began to giggle softly. Those soft giggles evolved into slightly louder laughter. "I have been wanting to do that for a long time." She admitted happily. "What do you think?"

"I think it's strange but I could get used to it." Warren answered her with a chuckle. He had spent his first few years of life as a civilian servant living with a civilian family, in that time he had observed many palman customs. Every morning before work or school the wife of his first master would kiss her husband, her first son and her granddaughter on the cheek before they left the house. After only three months of serving that family she had begun to kiss Warren goodbye as well. It was just that kind of warm, friendly family atmosphere could which did it.

Of course, those kind of kisses had been very different. Mieus' kisses were far, far better.

"You'll get used to it soon enough. Okay, back to business now. Try this out." The android girl picked the rifle up from off the table and held it butt-first out to Warren. There was no danger that the gun would suddenly go off in her hands, without a connection to a user it was completely out of power, utterly harmless. It ran on electricity instead of bullets, as soon as bullets were outlawed in society gun-related injuries went down by half. It just went to show how stupid some palmans could be.

"Thanks… darling." Warren said as he took the weapon from her waiting hands. It felt strange to call somebody that. Strange, but good all the same. He connected the gun to the ports in his arm, which contained a direct link to his internal power source. The gun felt heavy and familiar in his hand. There had once been a time when a gun like this one might as well have been an extension of his body; he had used it that much. He just needed to load the diagnostic program now, assure that the gun was compatible with his system and all his new parts.

For about a minute Warren just stood there, sorting out the programs within. Although it was just sixty seconds it was still far too long just to synch up a gun. The major's brow furrowed a little. "Um." He said after a time, summing up the knowledge that something was wrong. He persevered, though after another half-minute he said "Um…" again and opened his eyes.

"What's wrong? Did I grab the wrong kind of weapon?" Mieus asked him, worried by the 'um's. She wasn't a gun nut, she could barely tell the things apart.

"No, I don't think it's an error on behalf of the weapon. I think the error might be with me. I can't seem to find the firearm proficiency files. All searches of the system are turning up blanks. The files must be either corrupted or missing." Warren seemed apologetic, bashfully shrugging away his faults. After so much reconstruction from a broken and ravaged shell he had been expecting some problems. The work that Siren had performed on him was perfect, the flaw was in the core, the software.

"File not found?" Guessed Mieus. That was a bother. Without an easily accessible external weapon his combat prowess would be compromised. She watched the wren-type check the sealed energy chamber, then the catalyst bolt. He seemed to know what each of the parts were, but he was moving with a hesitation that an infantryman simply should not have. Realization came to her. "You _do_ know how to use a gun, don't you? You haven't forgotten."

"I _should_ know how. I remember using one of these all the time in the war. Heck, I could disassemble and reassemble a standard plasma rifle in fifty two seconds in the dark! Why can't I remember how it works anymore? I don't understand! This doesn't make sense!" Warren shouted, becoming agitated. Losing physical parts was one thing, losing parts of his memory and his mind was something else entirely. He didn't want to lose his mind, he was terrified of slipping one last time and winding up a mental patient again.

Mieus came to his rescue and disconnected the rifle cables from the ports in his arm. The girl gently pried the weapon from his grip and laid it to the side. "It's okay, Warren. You're very old now, practically ancient, it's not surprising some of your files may have vanished or become corrupted. You can always recreate the files later. Don't worry about the gun for now. Calm down."

"Yeah. Yes, you're right. Sorry about that. I still have my basic combat protocol. That is enough." Warren sighed, trying to take Mieus' advice. He couldn't panic, it wouldn't accomplish anything.

"How advanced is it?" There were varying levels of combat proficiency. They ranged from blunt clunky motion to highly-tuned speed. She as a mieu-type fell into that latter category. Speed, flexibility, dangerous strength and precision came naturally to her. She was curious to see how much of Warren's basic combat skills measured up to her. Perhaps he would let her find out. Mieus crossed her hands out in front of her body and allowed the metal claws to slide out of her battle gloves. The silvery shling of the action was musical to her ears.

"Please don't hurt me. I don't like pain." Warren confessed as he backed away from her, but he understood what she was getting at. If he couldn't use a gun then he sure as hell needed to be able to use his hands dexterously, or he was worthless as a soldier. He should at least have confidence in his martial abilities, but after so long were they still there? What if he drew a blank like when he had tried to synch up his gun? Mieus would probably shred half of his face off before she realised he had glitched.

"I won't hurt you. I just want to see if you can hit me, or if you can stop me from hitting _you_."

"Whoa, wait! Mieus, I can't hit you! You're my partner!"

Too late. Mieus launched herself at Warren with a shouting battle cry, raising her claws up in an attempt to leave deep scratches in his golden armor. Her heart wasn't quite in it as this was only a friendly match, but the major freaked as if it were dangerous and real. A program which had lain dormant for over a thousand years kicked back into life and he calculated her momentum, predicted her assault, and designed a retaliation able to stop her attack and even turn it into a defensive strike. When Mieus attacked with all her body it made her quite vulnerable, that he could see.

He acted. Instead of defending and blocking her attack Warren ducked down a little and grabbed her by the upper arm, whirling around and using Mieus' own momentum to throw her over his shoulder. She went flying, but the cell was small and there was not much space to fly to. Her battle cry became a squeak but she couldn't stop herself, there was not enough time and she was trapped within the throw. Mieus hit her shoulder on the edge of the table and went tumbling to the floor.

It wasn't much different to when Siren had defended himself against the girl. However, this time Mieus didn't get up and attempt a second attack, and Warren didn't stand still to wait for her to move again. He rushed to the table and leant over it, trying to see the damage of what he had done. He seemed worried. "Mieus?" He called. "I'm sorry! I didn't think you'd be so light! Are you alright?"

She was sprawled out on the ground, but instead of looking angry with him she just seemed surprised. That surprise was converted into a grin when she saw Warren's worried face. She was nowhere _near_ as delicate as to break on the first throw. "You know, that isn't something you should say to a woman. It's the very last thing that we like to hear." She teased, pulling herself up to her feet. Once she was standing again she ran her fingers through her hair to straighten out the tangles.

It took Warren a few seconds to get what she meant. "Oh. Sorry."

"But next time it will be _you_ lying there on the floor," she promised, "I won't make it easy, knowing that you seem to have martial moves programmed into you. Where did you get a hold of information like that? Was it part of the info that you stole?"

"No, of course not. I'm just prudent when it comes to fighting. My parts have been successfully installed and I am capable of participating in combat. There won't be any problems when the layans arrive." It was nothing to be proud of, it was just information. His master's first son had been a student learning judo, boxing and karate, and they say that teaching a skill to another is the best way to learn it oneself. Needless to say Warren had picked up a few interesting things while fulfilling his duty as an animate punching-bag. He was secretly pleased to see that the data was still there. He'd hate to lose it.

"Do you really thing Master Siren is telling the truth about the layans being evil and summoning up Dark Force? Are the planets _really_ infested with evil palmans, the ones who locked our people away in the dark?" Mieus asked Warren. She didn't quite know or believe herself. It just seemed a bit too farfetched, but what did she know anyway? She was just a sheltered little girl.

He shook his head. "It doesn't matter what we think. We're not allowed to have opinions anymore. We just have to do what Siren says and believe whatever he wants us to believe. That's what it means to be a good servant." Though for what it was worth Warren wasn't quite certain either. Orakio had been a single person, not an entire race of people. It could be that Siren might have gotten his wires crossed somewhere, at some point in time.

But that would not stop his faithful servants from trusting him, believing in him.

Even killing for him.


	17. The Eve of the War

The lights of the Ashley house remained on long after the sun had gone down. It was nice to have it filled with such life again, just about everybody from the old team able to sit around, have dinner, and while away the rest of the night waiting for the morning to come. There was a sense of tension which overshadowed everything else, true, but it only slightly dampened the good spirits of the evening.

Rune and the other boys came back just before the day turned to twilight, then Chaz arrived carrying a few boxes half an hour after that, then Wren silently and coldly another hour after _that_, turning up when the stars came out. The girls already had the dinner prepared and it was enjoyed by all who possessed the ability to eat.

Demi was especially proud of the salad she had prepared all by herself, though Rika and Hahn seemed to be the only ones who ate a great deal of it. Rune, Chaz and Raja were unhealthy lumps who would only tough the meat wraps, until Rika very lovingly _made_ Chaz eat a small portion of it. She reminded him a little _too_ much of Alys sometimes.

Dinner conversation was vibrant, about what was going on in the world and who was doing what, what the future might hold and whether or not Chaz could pass his final exams. They all avoided the topic of Siren; that was an issue to be dealt with later on in the night. As darkness sealed itself around the house Rika and Demi were busy doing the dishes in the kitchen, Hahn was still at the table trying to compose a letter to his wife, Raja and Rune were playing a game of Castles and Chaz had gone back to his room. Wren was sitting on the couch and not doing much of anything at all.

He had been there for quite some time. There was nothing around for him to do. He didn't like it. Without any tasks for him to complete or any current responsibilities he was left with just himself waiting, reflecting. It put him slightly on edge and he could not figure out how the others were able to put Siren and the loss of Zelan out of their minds, as if it had never happened. It was becoming increasingly apparent that he was the only one aware of just how worryingly serious it was.

"So what do you think that ugly, ugly picture over there is a painting of?" Rune asked Raja as he moved one of his castles across the board to threaten the dezorian's already rickety fortifications. Everybody had noticed it even if they had been trying not to. It was like a little goblin which assaulted a person's senses the moment they stepped through the threshold.

Raja had lied about knowing absolutely nothing about the game they were playing. He had been dabbling in it on and off for the last sixty years. He was luring Rune into a clever trap and when his guard was down he would destroy him. It was hard to keep a straight poker face; he just wanted so badly to laugh. "Light, I don't know. Motavian art is nearly as bad as its fashion, ugly, ugly, and ugly. I think it might be a plate of fried eggs maybe?"

"It's not ugly! It's just unusual and misunderstood!" Rika called out from the kitchen, defending her special find. Beside her Demi was helpfully drying and putting away while she washed. "Also, the general consensus believes that it's a painting of a sunset."

Hahn looked up from his letter. He had several screwed-up balls of paper scattered all around him, half finished letters to his wife. The end of the pencil he was using had plenty of tooth marks in it. He wasn't quite sure how to explain to her that he was going into outer space soon to fight a killer robot with magical powers. Maybe he shouldn't write anything at all or make up an excuse instead. He didn't want his Saya to worry about him but he also needed to explain why he'd be out of touch for awhile.

The young scholar ran a hand through his hair and smiled. He had released it from its plait earlier and it hung loose and free down his back. Some people like his father said that growing his hair out had made him look weaker and more feminine, but women were really falling for long-haired men these days. He was just jumping onto the bandwagon with many others and he knew that Saya liked it too. Hahn stopped chewing on his pencil for a moment. "A sunset? I don't think so. I saw it in the hallway, looks more like a pair of sand newts mating to me."

Rune raised an eyebrow, listening to Hahn and also scrutinizing the position of his playing pieces on the board. Raja had suddenly made a move that the esper hadn't expected and now a branch of his defenses was cut off from the others. He had to think of a way to get it back again without risking too much of his remaining force. "Maybe it's like an ink blot test and we all just see what we _want_ to see. For the record I think it looks like a village on fire."

The Lutz had been the only one to get their guess right. He made his move and put a crack into Raja's capture squad but had not anticipated just how hard the bishop could hit back. When he did Rune ground his teeth a little and tried to appear unconcerned, looking around for something else to focus his attention on. He found it, leaning back onto two legs on his chair and placing both arms behind his head. "What do you think it looks like, Wren?" He asked the android trying to keep to himself.

He glanced to the robed magician briefly, blankly, then looked away. He didn't see how that was relevant or even important. "I do not have an opinion." Wren answered quietly.

Ouch, cold. Eventually Rika and Demi finished up their business in the kitchen and Rune and Raja's castle game to a mediocre conclusion, namely, they were beginning to stalemate and both men got bored of the game. At some point Rika excused herself from her guests and slipped away to her room to check on Chaz. The youth was actually asleep on their bed, exhausted from all the work he had completed behind the scenes. His wound must have bothered or slowed him down, too.

Chaz was at his cutest when he was sleeping. It was as if the world could not touch him. Rika sat down on the edge of the bed and looked down at her love. He worked himself way too hard because somewhere deep inside of himself he believed that he was still the leader. Of what exactly Rika didn't know, but probably everything. The war they had lived through three years ago had caused him to grow up way too fast and now he could not go back, all he could do was continue to push ahead.

Even when the darkness had been purged from their worlds there still existed cruelty. Rika thought that it was cruel, in a sense that neither of them had ever had a childhood. Their consolation was that right now, in the present they were both very happy. Rika sighed. She couldn't bear to wake him up when he looked so peaceful like that.

She had made her decision. She would ask Chaz to stay behind. Going into battle with a wound like that upon his shoulder and down along his sword arm would put him at risk. He wouldn't be able to fight like he used to and it could also affect the way he'd shield himself. Chaz had escaped from Siren's shot just barely last time; he wouldn't get that same kind of luck again.

This wasn't like three years ago when she and Chaz had only been friends. She couldn't risk Chaz's life over some silly android and worldship in the sky. It sounded kind of selfish she knew, but after giving so much in the Great War didn't she deserve that bit of selfishness now?

When she shifted her weight on the bed a little Chaz stirred. He opened his eyes and looked up at her, then offered a sleepy smile. He propped himself up on his good arm and rubbed the side of his neck lightly, stifling a yawn. "Hi Rika. Sorry I haven't been around much today, I've been busy. How's everybody doing?"

"They're all amusing themselves. It's getting late, soon we'll have to get together and plan out tomorrow before we go to bed. I still don't really know what we're going to do." For a moment they could faintly hear Raja laughing from the other side of the building. It reminded them that for once they were not all alone in the house. "Chaz, before we go and discuss that with the others I need to talk to you about something private, first."

"Just give me a minute to wake up properly, okay?" Chaz smiled as he sat up and stretched, sighing at how good it felt.

"Chaz," Rika told her fiancé seriously, "I don't want you to go with Rune and Wren tomorrow. I want you to stay here."

Maybe the demand was a little _too_ blunt for him. He stopped and stared at her in mid-stretch, surprised. Rika wasn't pulling his leg, she meant every word that she said. Unexpectedly the blond hunter gave an ironic smile and a little laugh. She had taken the words right out of his mouth, but names reversed. He shook his head gently. "I was going to ask you the same. I don't want you to go either, but _I_ have to go out there with the others. I'm the only swordsman they have."

"You're wounded." Rika announced gravely, laying a hand softly on Chaz's hurt shoulder for emphasis. The hunter hissed, wincing. If _that_ felt bad then he needed to imagine what a sharp impact or a gunshot might feel like instead. "You've always been there when they've needed you, from the beginning to the very end. I have too. There needs to be a time when we can just sit it out and let the others take over, especially when we have so much to lose."

"It sounds reasonable enough but I just can't do that. I'd feel like I was letting all our friends down." He understood where she was coming from but he was an adult able to take care of himself. They had only just recently found their friends again, he'd never be able to forgive himself if he stood down and they got seriously injured or killed. Chaz took Rika's hand and squeezed. "I have to go."

"I can't come with you." Was all Rika could say to that.

"Are you afraid?" Chaz asked her. This was what he had spoken about with Rune. He wouldn't think any less of her for staying behind; she had fought enough. Heck, he _wanted_ Rika to stay behind, she'd be all the more safer for it in the long run. It sounded hypocritical in reflection but he didn't care. Rika had retired from the hunter scene some time ago but to Chaz it was his entire life.

Rika studied her shoes. In order to admit it she couldn't look Chaz in the face. "I am, actually. I didn't think I'd have to fight ever again and I was comfortable with that. When I fought with you three years ago it was because I had nothing else in the world to lose save for my life. If I died in battle I would do it regretting nothing. Now, three years later I have everything to lose. You, myself and our future together that we worked so hard to create. How could I possibly put that in jeopardy now?"

"That just makes you normal. I could lose everything, so too could Rune and Raja. Hahn has a _kid_ on the way but he's still coming with us to fight. I'm not trying to guilt you Rika, but I just want you to know that we're all scared equally, no one more than the other." He scooted over and put his arms around her, smiling and breathing in the scent of her hair. He felt Rika relax and lean back against him. "Stay here and be safe, but let me go to Zelan with the others. They need at least one of us by their side."

"You have to come back. You have to promise me that you'll come back." The girl told him, feeling her resolve slipping. She couldn't force Chaz to do anything he didn't want to do, all she could do was suggest it. He had already made up his mind and she had made up hers. Briefly they were going to have to split apart. If the worldship had never come they wouldn't have to do this, Rika experienced a bit of resentment toward all those people on board totally oblivious to all the trouble they were causing.

"I will. I promise." Chaz pledged to her earnestly, touching the side of her chin lightly with his index finger and then tilting it in his direction, resulting in a slight awkwardly placed but incredibly sweet kiss. She would have to trust him, trust that he was still the same accomplished fighter of three years ago. Having her to come back to was more than enough reason to try his best and return without a scratch. He'd be thinking of her always when they were apart.

Meanwhile, as one insecurity was being dealt with another one was creeping back up to the surface like oil upon water. Wren had stepped outside of the Ashley home for a little peace and quiet, and also to get away from Raja's incessant laugh. It was very dark but Rika had earlier lit a kerosene lamp by the front door, bathing the area around the house in a soft golden glow. It was like another world on the outside, calm and still. Wren greatly preferred it to the noise inside.

Crickets chirped out there in the darkness and the lamplight attracted the attention of certain moths. Once Wren had actually enjoyed the sound of crickets chirping in the night, though all he had now was a brief memory of that enjoyment. That tiny, usually unobtrusive sound meant that no enemies were out there in the shadows planning an attack. Wren folded his arms and thought, or processed, but he had already gone over everything earlier in the evening. Now he was just killing time.

Absently he removed the Waizz star from out of his inventory, turning it about slowly between his fingers. It was unfortunate that he had to retrieve the trinket from block C, along with unlocking any electronic seal what it did for himself personally was unlock a flood of bad memories. Well, not _all_ of them had been bad, some had been quite good actually, but the intensity of the bad memories had bled through and infected one and all.

He knew that he was not as good a person as he outwardly seemed to be. Losing his emotion had crippled the bad part of him as well as the good, cutting his cruel streak short. All wrens had a cruel streak deep inside of them somewhere, Siren's was pronounced, his own was misplaced, and Warren's had been unhealthily repressed. Siren was perhaps the most honest wren-type that Wren had ever seen, he did not even _try_ to hide a single thing about himself. Wren found that he could almost respect Siren for that.

Wren read the small inscription again on the back of the war medal. That was what irritated him so much about all this business with the worldship; it had forced him to dust one of the skeletons in his closet and get this Waizz star out of storage. It was heavy with spilled blood. During the war it'd be a rare moment when he'd see the warren-type _not_ covered in blood of some description. The blood of enemies, of allies, patients… or victims. It didn't make much difference, he himself had been the same to a lesser extent; all walking around in blood.

Only he never snapped like his comrade had. Wren squeezed the war medal in his hand and even considered breaking it. What did it matter? But it was the only way he could get inside of the Alisa Three so he relented. He heard the door creak slightly as somebody stepped outside with him. Wren did not glance over to look. If it turned out to be Raja he would just move on to another locale again.

Thankfully it was not the loud, partially drunk bishop which turned up by his side. It was somebody shorter, smaller and a tad afraid. "Is it okay if I come out here, Master? I saw you leave and I wanted to talk with you. I can go if you don't feel like talking, though…" Demi murmured, not quite able to make a proper request when she thought her master was angry with her, the little girl holding onto the edges of the door with both her hands.

Half of her body was in the house, the other half outside, ready to go either way depending on how her master responded. Wren regarded her with an unreadable expression. "Please close the door, Demi. You will let in moths." He said.

She took that as a yes. She closed the door eagerly behind her and then realised she hadn't quite planned out what she was going to do or say next. Demi fidgeted for half a second then forced her hands to still, clasped at her front. Wren wasn't necessarily a hard person to talk to but it was Demi's anxiety which made it so. "I just wanted to know if you were mad at me for what happened on Zelan. I feel responsible for you being here against your wishes. Are you angry with me?"

"I do not get angry at anybody." Wren replied calmly, watching the shadows outside of the lamplight instead of the girl he was talking to. The crickets continued their little song. "I do wish you had obeyed my orders and boarded the Landale when you had the chance, but I can also see how you were torn between your orders and your concerns for my safety. You still have your emotions. I did not take that into account. You are a very loyal person."

"Because you made me this way." Demi pointed out, not quite appreciating the peace and quiet as much as her master did. There had been more than enough of that on Zelan for the past few years, what she wanted now was excitement and new experiences. That was also a product of Wren's programming too.

"Not exactly. I put you together, performed some behavioral manipulations, activated and raised you, but I did not in any way design who you are. Your identity came into being in a different manner." He managed to explain without actually giving anything away. Demi was nowhere near ready to know the truth. He himself regretted nosing around the truth in the first place. That was the problem with youth; it made one believe that they deserved to know _everything_. "… That is the reason why Mieus was a failure." He added after a moment of thought.

"Please don't bring her into this." Demi pleaded but knew it would do no good, she was the very heart of that particular matter. Wren wouldn't tell her the secret of creating artificial life and because of it she had forged an imperfect vessel, but that hadn't stopped Demi from loving her. She couldn't be blamed for how Mieus had turned out but the girl still felt guilt for it anyway. Demi did not take her own advice and persisted on the subject. "Rika was wandering around Zelan yesterday and accidentally found Mieus. She woke her up only for a minute or so before she became violent and had to be put to sleep again."

"Is that so." Wren answered noncommittally, his aloof attitude over what was so important to her beginning to irritate Demi. If he had pockets he'd probably put his hands in them, detecting his servant's suppressed irritation. Wren closed his eyes and relented. "You need to learn how to detach yourself from the bonds of others. You are an android, not a palman. I think it is very important for you to forget about the people who have betrayed you. Bury it, it is easier that way." _And you might not ever have to give up your emotions someday, _he added privately to himself.

"I can't do that. I'll always love Mieus even if she betrayed me. I know it might be hard for you to understand, but I can think no other way." She stated with an unwavering will. Actually, Wren thought that perhaps he _could_ understand it, maybe. It was difficult, he was not as forgiving as his little counterpart. He could resent, he could nurse a grudge, and he could even hate, back in the days when those things actually mattered.

Demi was more like the people she had been modeled on, she was nothing like himself. He was very grateful for that. With Zelan out of his control she was the only thing he had left. The android turned to her and knelt down to her own height, placing a large hand on her diminutive shoulder. "I am going to tell you something that I have been meaning to tell you for quite some time. I will only say this once however, so please listen to me."

"Yes Master." Demi said obediently. She didn't know what he was going to say. Was he going to impart the secret of creating a _true_ AI to her? If he did maybe they could go back and revive Mieus, give her a conscience and a soul. She could finally be the mieu-type she was meant to be, beautiful and kind.

But that was not what Wren told her; it was something else. It was not easy for him to say but he said it anyway. "I just wanted to tell you that I am very proud of you, Demi. I am glad you are who you are. I am glad you are my servant." But who was she, really? She was not yet ready to know.

It wasn't what she expected to hear but the little android girl smiled nonetheless. Praise from her master made serving him all the more worthwhile. She wanted to hug him and she almost came very close to doing just that, but propriety won through in the end. "Thank you. It means a lot to me, Master Wren." Demi replied, elated.

Wren opened his hand and showed her what was resting in his palm; the Waizz star. She was surprised that he still had it after all that had happened on the satellite Azura. He proffered it to her solemnly. "I would like it if you could hold onto this for me for a short while. I do not enjoy keeping it but it is an exceedingly valuable item and it needs to be kept safe. Will you mind this for me?"

He had shown this to her before. It was a very lovely and ancient-looking trinket, but she couldn't help but wonder why her master didn't want to hold onto it himself. It was just a little piece of microchipped metal. She didn't ask about it, she had more tact than that. Instead she reached out and took the star from his hand, weighing it in her own. Wow, this in itself was a piece of history from a _very_ ancient time. "I'll keep it safe, I promise." She smiled. "You can trust me."

"I always do." Wren smiled back in a rare showing of attempted emotion.

That was the last time Wren and Demi were able to talk one-on-one, face-to-face for quite some time. It was a brief talk and neither of them had said what they truly wanted to say, or done what they truly wanted to do. They would regret it with time. In the present however their conversation was cut short when Rune opened the front door to look for the missing members of their team. Both androids glanced to him and Wren stood up from his crouch. "Hey, we're going to start planning out tomorrow now with Siren and Zelan and all that, so you'd better get back in here and come to the table. Chaz is gonna unveil his grand scheme or something."

"Sure! We'll be right there!" Demi beamed with such happy cheer that it almost outshone the lamplight. Rune blinked once and then smiled himself. Good to see that at least _somebody_ was still optimistic amidst all the bullshit that was going on.

The two of them followed Rune inside with Demi very reverently placing the Waizz star into her inventory for safekeeping. For the next few hours all the way until midnight and beyond the seven protectors of the Algo star system outlined their assault on Zelan, what to do, what not to do, and thinking of any little piece of useful information that they could. Chaz tried to control the brainstorming session himself but it was becoming increasingly apparent that a new leader was taking the reins away from him, for the way he spoke and planned and acted.

He did not know it yet, but the reverent Lutz was the one destined to lead them all into darkness, with no hope of salvation. He was going to hold them all together, but he was also about to tear them apart.

And as the night slept, eventually so did they. It was a very big, fateful day for them tomorrow.

Had they known the outcome none of them would have slept at all.

†††

On the morning of his execution it was to be a gloriously sunny day. He had been led out, heavily handcuffed from the maximum security prison to the shooting grounds, where empty shell casings littered the dirt and the opposing stone wall was pocked with bullet holes. Six men were waiting for him in the courtyard, two of them were androids, and one he knew. All of them were carrying executioner rifles. His firing squad.

A night in solitary hadn't done much to prepare him for his own imminent death, but he had been rotting in prison long enough and he was thoroughly sick of it. The newborn sun felt warm and inviting on his face, a welcome change from the cold stagnation of the cells. The guards led him roughly to where he was meant to stand but because they were small in comparison they could not really shove him around that much.

He supposed that if he _really_ put his heart into it he could shatter the cuffs binding his wrists together, knock out the guards and try to make a run for it. This seemed like a good idea, only that he'd be gunned down by the firing squad or the snipers he knew were posted on the roof of the prison. He couldn't run from this any longer, he had to calmly and bravely go off and accept his fate. He had betrayed his government, lied, schemed and murdered his way to where he was now. It was a fitting ending for somebody like him, who used to have _everything_ and now only had nothing, save for a bullet with his name on it.

But Mother Brain, rest her soul, he was absolutely terrified. Warren looked up at the squad and maintained his gaze on Forren, standing in the middle of the gunmen. He didn't want to break eye contact with him until he was no longer able to, he needed something real to focus upon. Forren looked back at him coldly. He'd probably be promoted to a full colonel for this, for executing a major enemy of the last government Algo had left, pardon the pun.

It was like the five-year friendship they had shared during the service never had happened. The guards herded him to the rough 'x' mark scratched into the ground and when Warren finally stood there it all became apparent to him, that he would never move from this spot ever again, see another sunrise or another sunset, and never, _ever_ serve his purpose again. He thought he should be trembling over what was about to happen, but along with the terror settling in within his mind he also felt a deep profound sense of calm.

After this it would be all over. His stupid life would end and with it, eventually, the war. If he told himself that it would be easier to bear. The two guards at either side of him took a step away and awaited further orders. Their smart blue-grey uniforms were clean and sharp, as this was a little beyond their usual duties and they needed to appear presentable. Warren waited peacefully to see what was next.

Lieutenant colonel Forren had managed to assign himself as both commander of the firing squad _and_ as a general shooter. They had nothing personal to say out loud to one another, that had already been taken care of the night before. The dark haired wren-type signaled for total silence and announced their prisoner's final sentence and judgement.

"Major Warren McCulloch wren-type six hundred and eighty three, for your crimes against the military and the motavian people, for treason, sedition, acts of terrorism, identity fraud, information leakage and murder of the second degree, I, Lieutenant Colonel Forren do so sentence you to death by firing squad."

He said all this rather impartially but the major could sense animosity within. He had heard all this stuff before, he just wanted to get on with it. One of the guards at his side seemed a little wary of touching him, but she removed a black cloth blindfold from her pocket anyway and placed a hand against the crook of his arm. "Any last requests, like a cigarette or something? I don't know what your sort wants just before you die."

Warren didn't look at the guard speaking to him, keeping his gaze on the six armed men. If he broke eye contact with them just for a second he was afraid they might shoot him while he wasn't looking. "No thanks; I don't smoke. What I _would_ like though would be a hasty pardon and release, so lets just forget this ever happened, okay?" He smiled encouragingly despite asking for the impossible.

The guard laughed, but not necessarily _at_ the android. Just about everybody in the third branch knew who he was, it was a shame things had turned out in this way. She shook her head. "Can't do that, unfortunately. All I can offer is this blindfold. Lean down, I'll put it on you."

The android refused. "No. I don't want a blindfold." He gave a knowing smile to the lieutenant colonel currently on duty. He knew that during an execution only one bullet in six rifles was live, the other five were blanks. This was common practice to spare the gunmen the guilt of murder, but Warren was fairly certain he knew _exactly_ who was carrying the live gun right now. He chuckled, feeling remarkably serene. Even the fear had faded now.

"It's in the regulations that the condemned must always wear a blindfold. It's for the gunmen's benefit rather than your own, they can't just shoot a man watching them, major!" The guard protested firmly. As far as she was concerned the prisoner didn't have a choice in the matter. The soldier looked to the commander for guidance. He was an officer too, perhaps he could help.

For a moment Warren suppressed his kind, good-natured personality and spoke with a cold amused grimness that was completely unlike him. What did it matter anymore? Soon he would be dead. There was no reason to be considerate when they were discussing his death. "No blindfold. I want to watch Forren's face as he shoots me. I want him to _always_ remember what he's about to do. I outrank you soldier so you will do as I say."

It was _his_ execution and he was determined to have it carried out his own way. The military was going to cover up this shooting as best as was possible, but because there was so much public interest in this affair it was going to receive at least _some_ media attention. It was important not to make the government seem like a despotic organization, especially in highly volatile times such as these. Forren consented. "Alright, it won't hurt to bend the rules just this once. Let it go, Cassie."

Cassie let it go. She was just glad she wasn't one of the members of the firing squad. She was merely a lowly guard and wasn't used to shooting people just yet, but if the news from the front lines continued to worsen any more she might find herself on the battlefield soon enough. "Any last words from the condemned?" She asked, herself and her partner wisely moving out of the line of fire. Warren stayed where he was, he didn't move.

At least he was obedient even if he _was_ difficult. The major thought about it solemnly. His last words… he should try to say something good, meaningful. "It's probably pointless to say this now because I've said it hundreds of times before, but I'm sorry for what I've done. I'm sorry. I was only trying to help. I don't regret it however; I never will. You are all just dogs of the military and the rebels will destroy you."

"May the Light have mercy on your soul." Forren intoned as if he hadn't heard Warren's declaration at all. Nothing that the major said matter anymore because he had gone crazy long ago. He had seen the psychiatric evaluations issued from the prison. He had been a dog of the military himself, so the kindest thing they could do for him now was to put him down. He raised the rifle and braced it against his shoulder, clearing the bolt. "Soldiers! On my count! Ready!"

The other five gunmen followed him and copied his movements perfectly. Most of them were palmans but they moved with a mechanical kind of synchronization, drilled into them through intense military training. This was it.

The male guard was playing a drum, he barely heard it over the softer rattling and clicks of the weaponry being readied. Warren bowed his head despite Forren's express instructions to hold it up high. It all came rushing back to him now, the fear he'd thought he'd overcome to make peace with the rest of the universe. He was paralyzed with fear, he was terrified, and he was not ready to die just yet!

"Aim!" Forren barked and sighted down along the gun, locking onto his target. The others smoothly followed suit. Their target had started to tremble. That was good, he wanted Warren to understand what he had done and what his meddling was about to do. He heard the condemned whimper quietly, which was both not a machinelike and military thing to do. At the last moment he altered his aim from the others, aiming up, aiming _high_.

Warren heard a voice in his head. It was Forren's, speaking in the private computational language that only androids could understand and hear. It was a private message and though Warren didn't think his figurative heart could sink any lower, it did.

_/ "Death is too good for you. I will __**never**__ let you find peace." / _He said.

_/ "No-" / _Warren began to plead.

"_Fire_!" Came the answering shout and all six gunmen shot at him, but only one bullet hit its mark. One moment the golden android was standing and the next he was on the ground in the dirt, pieces of his skull and sensory equipment strewn all around the body, and a dark pool of artificial android blood leaking from the wound. He didn't move. His death had been instantaneous.

He had not even felt the initial sting of the shot. Warren heard the crack of the guns and then everything had gone dark, silent, numb, still. It was as if a black wind had rushed straight through him. From that point on there was no pain, no passing of time as he knew it, only a relentless eternity sealed within a single second of forever. A single second that ultimately lasted for a thousand lonely, lonely years.

Warren looked away from the small circular window revealing the empty void of space. The view of the dark and the thin pinpoints of light reminded him of his prison, so he couldn't help but think of that time when he had been locked away. Suffering vivid flashbacks was normal for somebody like him, who had had nothing for such a long amount of time. The past was the past, but for now he had nothing else.

Breaking into the dormitory area of Zelan was easy. He knew where he was, what he needed and exactly where he had to go. Mieus had told him that it wasn't acceptable to meet the layans without a handheld weapon and she had ordered him to find one, because there was sure to be more than just guns lying about on the space station. She had gotten sick of being the wren-types delivery girl so Warren had gone to search all on his own.

But he already knew what he was looking for. Warren felt bad about breaking into somebody else's room but at least it wasn't a stranger's room, and the owner shouldn't mind. All about him was a chaotic jumble he was _very_ familiar with, preserved like an ancient forgotten fossil. Doc Zonderling's room.

Before his execution he had sent a message to the old doctor just to explain to him that he was alright and that everything would be okay. He didn't know if it had even gotten out of the prison though, correspondence with the outside world was strictly forbidden. Warren spent some time just studying the area. The old man who had lived here was just about the only government servant who would ever call him 'doctor' to his face.

Colleagues or something he had said they were, despite most of their time spent on chess and cards. Funny, it seemed like somebody had been staying here recently. Probably the layans. It was unlikely the old doctor was still alive after so many years. Warren ransacked the place respectfully with as much care as he could muster. There were plenty of books and clothes and tools and chemicals and such all over the place, there was even a pair of trousers in the freezer. The major laughed when he found it, this was certainly the Doc's room all right!

He also found plenty of medical supplies scattered all over the place, originally from the infirmary. Instead of passing it over for other things Warren gathered the supplies and tools together, packing it into an empty medical bag he found stuffed under the bed. He didn't quite understand _why_ he was doing something like this, only that he was a doctor himself and you never knew when first aid might be needed. It helped to be prepared. He slung the bag over one shoulder and continued the search.

What he was looking for was, in retrospect, not very hard to find. Most people liked to hide things like money or dirty magazines in-between their mattresses, which should make it the very first place where a palman would think to look, but Warren was not a palman. When he finally searched the mattresses the annoying lump that had briefly bothered Rika in the night was explained. From the bed Warren drew a sword.

The doctor had been very proud of that sword. It was something from his youth or something that had been passed down along his family line, so it was strange that it was still there after all this time. Nothing was missing, as if the resident of this room had been suddenly abducted in the night. The sword was beautiful nevertheless, lovely in its simplicity.

It was missing the scabbard though, but that was alright. Warren made a few experimental swipes in the air with it and it felt fine. It wasn't too heavy, it was pretty light actually. He didn't know the first thing about using a sword for a weapon but it didn't seem like there was much to it. He saw it as only a very large scalpel serving the very same purpose; cutting things apart. He could be comfortable with that.

The android smiled and silently thanked the old doctor for the sword. He would take very good care of it. In time, perhaps this weapon proficiency would replace the firearms files he had lost. He didn't really want to take up a gun again anyway, not after what a bullet had last done to his face.

The title Warren was merely a truncation of the term Warrior Wren, though he had never really felt much like one. His focus was purely offensive while his master Siren focussed on stealth, and old Forren from so long ago had been defense-oriented. He was not especially good at anything save for a heightened aptitude for learning. It was a skill he had used more often in peacetime than in war.

He had a feeling he was missing something regarding the death of Zelan. If Doc Zonderling had just packed up and gone to his next research assignment somewhere else he would have taken all his stuff with him. It was a mystery.

What had the layans done?

The sword wouldn't fit into the medical bag so he had to keep it on hand with him. It had only been about an hour but he already missed Mieus. He felt uneasy when she was not around to reinforce the idea that he was still alive. He decided to go look for her now, she was probably there with her master on the main control bridge, chatting to him like a little bird while he mostly ignored her.

As he left the room and almost tomb of his old friend Warren thought back to his own moment of death. He had a question on his mind that he'd most likely never hear the answer to because so much time had passed. Had his execution been knowingly botched? Had the dreadful anomaly remained undetected, or suppressed? Had Forren missed his target on _purpose_?

Was the colonel truly responsible for his thousand-year sentence to utter torment and madness?

_Death is too good for you. I will **never** let you find peace._

He didn't think he'd ever know the truth now, not anymore. A part of him felt deeply grateful for that.


	18. Standing on the Edge

On the morning of the fateful day which would change all of their lives forever everybody tried to wake up early. They all thought that they would be the first one up and ready before the others would be stumbling out of their beds, but there was already somebody else up before them, tracing all the way back to Wren and Demi who had not slept in the first place.

Before the sun had even risen Raja was already awake and making coffee. He brewed a cup and Rune came by and stole it, sleepily, so he made another one and Hahn came by next, pilfering it again with a groggy thank you. Sighing, the bishop made two more for Chaz and Rika, miraculously summoning them from their room, but Rika made a cup of tea instead so Raja kept her mug for himself.

Warming his hands on the hot steamy mug Rune listened to Hahn complaining about Chaz's hard stone floor again. Later, when they were all properly dressed and awake the young hunter brought out a large wooden box and placed it carefully on the living room table. It seemed to weigh quite a bit as it strained the boy when he moved it. A ray of warm sunshine flooded through the window and lit up the house. Chaz hesitated, as if self-conscious of his work, then opened the box up for the others to see.

It was full of some weapons, and most importantly armor. Chaz had scrounged all through the house and storage for things that had been left behind from three years ago, and had bartered for hours at the hunter's guild and smithy for replacement gear. It had eaten up his savings but he didn't care. It'd be worth it if it wound up saving the lives of his friends. New daggers for Hahn, claws for Rika, and Demi's old impacter gun which the girl was thrilled to see. There was also a new, expensive pair of knives for himself.

But Rika was not coming anymore, so the claws were not needed. The numan girl was sitting on the couch, feeling extremely embarrassed and guilty looking at those claws. Along with the weapons lay brand new armor for Chaz (his current set was old and pretty banged-up from numerous hunter missions), and a set of concealed armor for Hahn that was practically invisible under his normal clothes. With this they were finally equipped and ready to go.

They said goodbye to Rika at the door. She would have gone to see them off at the Landale, only there was the chance that she'd suddenly change her mind and wish to follow at the last minute. She didn't trust herself to keep her resolve, certainly it took a herculean effort just to let go of Chaz after their goodbye hug and kiss. It might be the last time she'd ever get to hold him, so Rika didn't want the embrace to end.

Chaz felt like he had been punched in the gut as he walked down the street with the others, away from his home. He knew without even turning around that Rika would still be standing in the doorway, waving until they were out of sight. She wouldn't be crying. He just had a feeling about that. This would be the first time they'd be separated for, hell, for the first time ever. They had always been together since the very beginning. Chaz folded his arms, hugging his front and gripping the black material of his hunter's garb.

He began to feel a little better once they left his street and were well on their way out of the city. The group of six very different people would have drawn all sorts of staring attention had this not been Aiedo, the city of strangeness and variety. Everybody in the city already knew that Chaz kept odd company, anyway. Rune patted the youth on the back awkwardly as they paused for a few minutes outside of the post office, so Hahn could mail off the letter to his wife.

Rune knew that it must be difficult for the kid, and if they hadn't needed his swordsman skill so badly he would have made Chaz stay home. Their attack on Zelan would be a team effort but in the end the Lutz just wanted it to be a one-on-one, himself against Siren. His pride as an esper had been wounded; he needed to redeem himself again.

Hahn walked out empty-handed from the post office with a drag in his step. Sending that letter meant he was in it for the long haul, to the end. He couldn't help but think that maybe he had made a mistake, but like Chaz he began to feel a little better once they walked further away from his problem. Instead of the usual party of five they left Aiedo as a party of six, the Landale waiting in the Nalya desert only a short walk away.

They were hindered by only a handful of weak biomonsters but Chaz and Hahn took them out quickly and efficiently with dagger and sword, venting their pent-up feelings on the beasts. Rune watched with passive interest along with the others. Their skill and technique had not rusted over the years, but Chaz had kind of stayed the same while Hahn had improved. The two cleared the sticky blood off their weapons and then they were off again.

Hot desert winds surrounded the great metal behemoth roosting in the flat, dry valley. It was close to midday when they arrived and half the party was sweating from the heat, looking forward to the lovely cool air conditioning they knew lay inside the spaceship. The Landale didn't seem to have been disturbed by any monsters, locals or natives. After a quick outside check Wren allowed everybody inside. Demi thought that she might have seen slight footprints in the dust and sand, distorted by the wind, but that could have been anything so she ignored it.

A flight to Zelan wasn't anything like a flight to the next planet along the line; it shouldn't take more than an hour or two. It was just enough time to get settled down and become nervous. Wren and Demi went to the cockpit of the ship to get the old girl up and into the air, while the three palmans and one dezorian moved to the inner lounge where the passengers were meant to stay and made themselves comfortable there.

Chaz had smiled when Demi went scurrying off after her master happily, a smile on her face. Whatever uncertainties or guilt she had over Wren now seemed to be gone. That was a plus. There was just something not right about seeing the little android girl so upset. Chaz looked to Hahn, who was getting slightly tangled up in the space harness while trying to strap himself in. "Hahn? Do you mind if I ask you something?"

"Sure, what is it?" The scholar replied as he finally remembered the trick to the straps and got himself secured nice and neatly, but bumped Raja in the ribs a couple of times. The dezorian didn't mind, he was just excited about every little aspect of space travel.

"Um…" Chaz said and wondered if he should have mentioned anything at all. If he asked he would sound like a nervous teenager unable to cope with his own feelings. If he acted now he'd still have the chance to go back to Rika, but he'd have to brand himself a coward forever. He'd have to abandon his friends over his girlfriend. Chaz couldn't do that, despite the idea being frightfully tempting. "How do you do all the things you do without pining for Saya? Don't you miss her when you're apart?"

Hahn looked back at Chaz solemnly. Suddenly it was like staring at his younger self, from the first time he had left Krup and his life there for Piata and the academy. The historian smiled apologetically and shrugged. "Oh, I'm always pining on the inside, sometimes. I'm not going to lie to you Chaz and say that it gets easier, but you won't feel this bad forever. You'll be thinking about other things soon enough."

"Long, long ago way before you three were born and I became a priest, I once had this wonderful woman who could never stick around for long. She was always all over the world, climbing this mountain or that, or going on pilgrimages. Light she was lovely, so I used to wait for her to come back." Raja explained with a faraway look in his slitted eyes. He sighed the sigh of an elderly man, thinking of the past. "One day she never came back. I like to think that maybe she found some nice place and settled there. I've always had a thing for older women."

Rune gave a cheeky smirk. "Now there aren't any." He said.

Raja cracked up, laughing at the joke and thumping Rune hard on the back. Chaz and Hahn didn't quite get the joke. It was funny, but it was also quite sad. Hahn spoke to Chaz under the gale of laughter. "Don't worry; you're not like I am. When you're married you can spend as much time with Rika as you like. For now let's just focus on Siren."

"I hope you remember how we're going to do this." Rune interrupted from across the flight seats, leaning forward as much as he was able with the restraints and placing his hands on his knees. "According to the androids Zelan has three main paths to the bridge. Siren could be along any one of those paths, or he could be waiting on the bridge himself. We'll split into three parties of two and head there, and once we reach the bridge we'll converge and backtrack along the path which delays any of the three parties."

"Because obviously Siren will be there." Hahn finished up for him while he thought. It was a practical plan but also quite dangerous. "You know Rune; you're starting to sound a little like Wren. So what do we do if any of us wind up in the party that meets Siren? Don't tell us to fight because he'd wipe me out."

Well, it wasn't like anybody _else_ was going to brief them with the androids preparing the ship for takeoff. Rune was just being responsible. He was one of the few, possibly the only one who had nothing significant to lose. "If you see Siren on your way to the bridge get the flying fuck out of there and try to find the rest of us. Don't try to be a hero. I'm looking at _you_, shorty." He said, glancing to Chaz at the end.

Chaz rolled his eyes at him. "Oh shut up, I'm not a child anymore. I'll follow the plan." The youth in the dark hunter clothes smiled at the older man, in a way that suggested he was entertained by a private joke. "I'm taller than you are, anyway." He murmured.

It was like throwing a bottle of whisky into a lit fireplace. Rune took the bait and smirked like a shark. "Oh yeah? Wanna stand up and prove it, shorts?" He baited back.

"Gladly!" Chaz retorted and began to uncouple his harness as quick as his fingers were able. Rune copied him and did the same.

"Guys, come on. We're just about to take off…" Hahn warned them ineffectually, but he knew what happened when Chaz and Rune clashed because of something stupid. It was quite nostalgic actually, but he'd rather they behave.

"Hold on, I'll measure." Raja volunteered himself with a chortle and struggled out of his belt himself. Rune and Chaz stood, glaring with their eyes and smiling with their mouths. The bishop took them by the arm each and spun them so they were back-to-back, ordering them to stand up straight with no tip-toes. Anybody who cheated would get a swift kick in the bum.

He used a level hand to measure. In the background Hahn sighed to prove he was not interested. Raja gathered the results. Somebody here was definitely not going to be happy about it. "Actually… Rune is still taller, only by a fraction of an inch. Sorry boy."

Chaz growled out in frustration while Rune snickered. He was so _close_, too! "You'll still be shorty until you can surpass me." Rune teased triumphantly. It probably wouldn't be long with the speed that the kid was growing, but for now he could still have his day.

Wren's voice emerged from the PA system at that point, immediately breaking up the confrontation. All four men looked up instinctively to the sound. "I have noticed that most of you are now out of your seats. We will have liftoff in three minutes so I suggest you sit down again before the gravity takes hold."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah…" Rune muttered and strapped himself back into his chair obediently. Chaz and Raja did the same without a word, but the young palman had quite a scowl on his face. They waited and three minutes passed, but there was no such liftoff. Rune assumed it might be a delay, but he hoped vehemently that there wasn't anything physically wrong with the Landale. It was the only spaceship they had.

Eventually the androids got back to them, but this time it was Demi who talked over the line. Rune could picture the girl trying to stand up as tall as she could in order to reach the intercom. "I'm sorry everybody, but it seems like there is an anomaly in one of the storage areas of the Landale. Master Wren will not launch the ship until the anomaly is checked out. Could you go take a look for us, please? I'd appreciate it."

"What kind of anomaly is it, Demi?" Hahn politely asked the disembodied voice.

"We think it might be a stowaway."

"Damn it, that'd be right. Some kid from Nalya sees a shooting star and goes out to investigate, finds a spaceship resting in the valley and climbs aboard for an adventure. They're gonna have an adventure alright, I'll make sure of it." Rune grumped and got out of his seat again with the others. This was an important mission, it couldn't be delayed by stupid kids. Time to give them a piece of his mind.

Chaz, Hahn and Raja followed the esper as he marched down the hallway to the storage bunker so he could kick out the intruder. His theory of a child stowaway was sound and made sense, but it bugged him in the back of his mind that a normal child shouldn't be able to creep on board the Landale without some former knowledge of the spaceship beforehand. It didn't matter, all that mattered was getting this bucket of bolts off the ground.

There was only one storage bunker on the ship large enough for somebody to hide in. Rune and his entourage trailing behind him headed straight for it, flung open the doors and the magician brandished his laconia staff to the anybody in the room. Hahn peeked over his shoulder while Chaz peeked under it, and Raja loitered around in the hallway out of trouble's way. "Alright brat, show yourself! You're being evicted!" Rune announced loudly and firmly.

The somebody who had been crouching down behind some metal boxes stood up and looked towards the three protectors standing in the threshold. The strange threat seemed to have baffled her. She blinked at them, her hiding place uncovered.

A heartbeat later Rune found himself sprawled out on the floor of the threshold, with an ache between his shoulder blades from where he had hit the frame of the doorway. Chaz had bolted for the intruder without any thought for his friend, roughly shoving Rune out of the way. The youth's heart had leapt right into his throat. He grabbed the intruder and hugger her tightly. "Rika!" He exclaimed, amazed and overjoyed.

Rika didn't mind the firm hug, happily she squeezed back. There were tears in her eyes, she was glad she was here but she also felt quite bad for jerking Chaz around and going back on her word. "I'm sorry, I couldn't do it. I couldn't let you go out there into danger without coming with you. When you all left and I went back into the empty house alone it hit me like a ton of bricks. I just knew I had to come back here."

"I'm not mad at you. I'm happy. In all honesty I didn't feel comfortable going off to battle without you. Ooh Rika, I missed you so much." Chaz said with a quaver of emotion in his voice, lifting his fiancée off her feet. It had only been an hour or two of separation but he'd half-feared that he'd never see her again.

"How exactly did you get to the Landale _before_ us? You obviously left Aiedo much later than we did and it must have taken time to decide to follow us, so how? You must have run like the wind." Hahn asked as he offered a hand to Rune and helped the esper back up off the floor. Not to mention nobody had seen her pass them on the way to the ship.

The numan girl grinned as Chaz put her down. It was nice to know that her friends weren't angry over her sneaking aboard. "It's simple, really. When I decided to follow you I took a telepipe to Nalya and walked from there. It was easy to figure out the landing point for the Landale because all the townspeople saw the general direction of the falling star." She told the scholar happily.

That was rather lateral thinking. "You can never decide whether to stay or to go, can you?" Chaz chuckled mischievously.

Rika blushed slightly, remembering the time three years ago when she had jumped from this very spaceship into Chaz's waiting arms. She had chosen Chaz over duty and that had been the right decision in the end, now she had chosen Chaz once more and hoped it was also for the best. Rika reached up and poked Chaz's cute little button nose. "Shut up, dear." She chided.

Frowning, Rune adjusted his robes after being knocked over. He wasn't quite used to a lack of respect such as that after spending so much time in the Myst Vale. He was the Lutz, after all. They seemed to have forgotten something. He cleared his throat to draw attention to himself. "While it's nice that we have you back and you're sure to be a big help on the raid, I can't help but notice that you're not wearing your claws right now. You're unarmed."

She looked at her hands and realised they were bare. After a moment of consideration Rika swore under her breath. She had forgotten her own weapons! How could she be so _stupid_?

Somebody shoved Rune aside again, only this time it wasn't quite so rough and forceful. Raja waved his long arms over the heads of the palmans, displaying what he had in his hands. It was the new pair of claws that Chaz had bought for Rika yesterday. He had lifted it from the box early in the morning while nobody else was looking, hiding it in his inventory. Rika had told everybody that she wouldn't be going with them to Zelan the night before but Raja had faith in her. The bishop had an inkling, a whisper in his spirit that she'd need the claws soon enough. "Looking for this?" He asked.

"Raja!" Rika exclaimed and rushed to him, accepting the claws he held out for her. She tried them on and they fit nice and snugly as she flexed her hands. She sprung the catch on the claws, the blades sliding out and then in again smoothly. They were perfect. "Thank you so much!" She added as she gave the dezorian a great big hug.

"I'll go tell Wren and Demi that we're good to go now." Hahn volunteered as he made his way for the door. Rune, having learned his lesson already wisely got out of the way. "You all go and get yourselves strapped down in the lounge and I'll be back soon. Let's get off this planet."

They did as they were bidden, but Rune politely moved one seat over so Rika could sit next to Chaz. The couple held hands as they waited for takeoff, and a few minutes later Hahn returned and was harnessed up himself.

Before they knew it they were finally off into space.

†††

Siren staggered and nearly fell while walking from one operating table to another. His balance suddenly failed him and had Mieus not been around to grab him and hold him up he would have fallen to the floor. He was rather heavy but it only took one arm to support him at first, and two or three seconds to recalibrate his equalizers and stand on his own again. He was both silent and expressionless when this happened; he did not even cry out in surprise.

The first operating table contained a little robot body, the second one covered in tools and odd ends. Mieus had gone looking for her master and hadn't found him in the main area of Zelan where she had seen him last, instead she'd found the siren-type hard at work in block A, tinkering with a little whistle bot he had found trashed in the corner. It seemed like her master couldn't stand still, as soon as he was finished with one task, like familiarizing himself with Zelan's computer system he had to dive right into another task to keep himself busy.

Cessation of activity was merely a waste of time, but by the way he stumbled Mieus thought that he ought to be taking care of himself rather than some small white box on wheels. Siren pushed himself up off her body but she held onto his shoulder for a moment longer, then let go. He was stable. "Are you alright, Master?" She asked with concern.

He went right back to what he was doing, picking some parts and a tool off the second table and taking it back to the first, beginning to remove the broken parts and reinstall the newer pieces. He didn't ignore her though, Siren replied to her while he repaired some of the faulty wiring. "I am currently eighty seven percent repaired from prior combat. Injuries sustained from the layan black magic caused moderate self-repair complications which have hindered regenerative function until recently. I will be back to optimum condition in one hundred and twenty minutes."

Two hours. She hoped the layans wouldn't turn up within that timeframe. If possible she and her partner would try their very best to keep the filthy layans away from their master at all costs. However, if a confrontation between Siren and the layans was unavoidable then all she could do was hope that her master would be in the best shape manageable. Mieus folded her arms, shifted most of her weight to one leg and watched what the wren-type was doing. "What's that?" She piped up with slight interest.

"Nothing in particular." Siren replied airily and replaced the wiring panel back onto the machine. Now that that part was done with he moved on to check the power source. "Might I ask you something, Mieus? What is it that you want most in this wold? Without limitations, what is your ultimate goal?"

Mieus knew her lines well. "To serve you, of course." This elicited soft laughter from her master while he worked. Was that not what he wanted to hear? Well, in retrospect she had only really known him for a day or so. The red-haired girl revamped her answer, speaking with proper honesty this time. "… I want to be an important person, enough for people to pay attention to me. Enough for people to listen to what I say and actually _care_. I want to be heard."

"What would you say?" Siren pressed gently, hitting all the buttons he thought were right.

"It's personal. I don't really know." Mieus admitted with a little shrug, but she thought maybe it was about her mother and mostly her grandfather who had never understood her, not one bit. He never tried to learn new things about people, if he did not understand what Mieus wanted from him then he saw fit to ignore her instead. She had hated that, it was as if she didn't matter the slightest bit in his grand scheme of things. If that were true then _why_ was she created in the first place? All she ever wanted was to be listened to; to be understood.

Okay, so that was pretty established in her mind. Once she was heard, what was she going to say? 'I hate you. I'll kill you.' she supposed. Siren put down the tool he was using, picked up the little robot and set it down on the floor, just making one final check that its wheels were properly aligned. He backed away and stood beside Mieus, putting an arm around her back. "If it is not inconvenient to me I will listen to you. I daresay your partner will do so as well. In time many will care about what you have to say. You will have a purpose here."

"Thank you, Master." Mieus said with a shade of surprise. She had figured Siren for the single-minded kind of android that was representative of his series type, but it appeared that he actually gave a damn about how she felt. Maybe it was all just words with no sentiment behind it, and the Light knew that that was all it _would_ be, but for now to Mieus words were enough. She looked down at the little robot. It wasn't doing anything, it was just sitting there.

Siren placed two fingers to his lips and whistled once, shrilly. Mieus flinched a bit at the sharp noise but it was the little robot on the floor which reacted to the sound most. It raised its top section up a touch and spun it around several times, whistling back loudly, long and drawn-out. It had two lenses on its top section which acted as its eyes, one extended out on a rod to regard the two humanoid machines curiously. It spoke in clicks and whistles, but fortunately Siren and Mieus were equipped with language packs capable of deciphering the lingo. It asked where they were.

"You are on satellite Zelan." Siren replied dully.

Just as they understood the shrilling clicks the little whistle robot was programmed to understand the common tongue of Algo. Its extendable eye looked to Siren, then Mieus, and then back to Siren again. It assumed the bigger android was the leader of the two. It asked what it was doing there.

"You have always been here." The wren-type intoned curtly.

The robot did not recall. Its damages had been enough to totally erase its memory. All it could do was take Siren's word for it. It had no reason to disbelieve him, so it asked its third and final question. It asked if it could be allowed to stay.

Mieus fielded this one. "Yes!" She exclaimed happily and sunk down to her knees, while the other whistle tested out its wheels and rolled over to the girl eagerly. Its eye extended out again and looked at her all over, then she leant forward and gave it a big hug. "I'm going to call you Whistler, is that okay?" She asked. It squealed, its little wheels spinning madly off the ground. The squeal was generally a sound of thanks.

Siren was no longer focussing on the machines in the room. He'd built himself a wireless connection to Zelan's main computers while he was going over the databanks and had kept a good fraction of his mind occupied with watching the surrounding space around the station for intruders. The computers had a pretty good range and although his positronic brain by itself couldn't handle the _entirety_ of the information, he'd be notified briefly should an approaching ship enter Zelan's range of detection.

That notification had just been issued. Siren strode professionally to the door and activated the sensor to make it slide open. He turned back to Mieus and Whistler, shooting them a glare serious enough to make the mieu-type put down the robot and stand up on her own. "Zelan detects a large spaceship rapidly approaching from the direction of Motavia. Estimated time of arrival is seventy five minutes. The layans are coming to take back their base. We are going to the bridge. Follow."

Then he was gone, heading briskly down the hallway, not quite a walk but not quite running either. Mieus chased after him with Whistler wheeling at her heels, the robot without an idea of what was going on but following anyway. The girl didn't like the sudden announcement; it was far too soon. Those damn impatient layans. "That's not enough time for you to repair yourself, Master!" She exclaimed to the android in front of her.

He didn't need somebody to state the obvious for him. It wouldn't be a problem though, it would not be a problem at all. That was why his servants lived after such an extended period of death. "Do not panic, Mieus. Just follow me and do as I say." He reassured her coldly.

It took five minutes to get back to the main area of Zelan and when they got there the computers were already going strongly. Many of the screens were showing jargon Mieus had no idea about, but a few of them showed the two planets and shots of surrounding space. The girl sat down in an empty chair and placed her hands in her lap. Whistler rolled to a halt beside her, it had practically become her shadow.

Siren was impressively accessing and inputting commands into the computer without actually using his hands to hit the keys on the keyboard. A screen full of information blacked out into faint starry space. They couldn't visibly see a ship traversing that particular area of space as the cameras couldn't see nearly as far as radar detection could, but give it another twenty minutes and they would _all_ be able to see. Siren leaned forward and laid his hands on the control panel, glaring. "Ship detected in zone delta-nine-seven-nine-five. I have no doubt that it is the stolen ship of the layans. Where is your partner? I want everyone here at once."

Mieus slapped a hand lightly to her mouth. He had been missing for quite some time and she hadn't really thought about it because she had been spending time with her master. "I told him to go and find a handheld weapon that he could use, but that was a while ago. He can't use guns anymore so I guess he's still looking for something else. Maybe he got lost. Should I call him through the network?" She asked in embarrassment. Siren didn't reply, but he didn't say no, so that must mean yes. Good thing they had exchanged network addresses before they had gone their separate ways.

Whistler squeaked as Mieus sent a message to the missing servant of Siren. She wasn't certain where he was on the space station so she made it loud and encompassing the entire satellite. _Everybody_ could hear it. _/ "Warren! Where the hell are you? Are you deactivated or something? Wake up! Master Siren wants to see you!" /_

After about five seconds they got a reply. It sounded much fainter than Mieus' shouting, as if Warren was far off on the other end of Zelan or cowed by the force of Mieus' demand. _/ "Where am I? How about where on Motavia are **you**? I have been looking for you for well over an hour! You weren't at the bridge when I looked there. Were you hiding?" / _He sounded a little out-of-sorts, feeling hurt that Mieus had yelled at him suddenly for no apparent reason.

_/ "Well, we're back here now. Hurry to the bridge as soon as you can, we have an estimated time of layan contact. Did you manage to find a weapon that doesn't clash with your lack of programming?" /_

_/ "I think so. I'll just have to find out when the layans come. Stay right there, I'll be up on the bridge within three minutes." /_

_/ "Okay. See you soon, sweetie." /_

_/ "Bye." /_

Now that that was over with they had to get back to the matter at hand. Siren picked up the heavy, wicked-looking cannon he'd left lying against the control panel while he had inspected the computers earlier and reconnected it back to the ports in his arm. Electricity flooded through the empty peripheral as it became an active part of his system again. "I do not like to do this but it seems I have little choice." He gave a predatory smile as the coupling was complete. "I need you and the major to deal with the layans or stall them until my self-repairs are complete. Can you do that for me?"

"I know _I_ can." Mieus answered readily. She'd welcome any chance to show him what she could do. It would only be a forty-five minute timeframe before her master would be ready to fight by himself. A forty-five minute proving ground. The girl placed a finger on her lips and appeared thoughtful. "If Warren and I took three or four layans at once each we could wipe them out in one fell swoop, or maybe we could bottleneck them all in a narrow corridor."

"Do as you wish." He told her as he took a seat at the computer nearby. Had he a choice he would never trust anybody but himself, as the self was the only real certainty in the world, but a leader could never do everything by himself. It was time to test out the servants and see what they could really do. He was confident with the major because he had prior combat experience despite still being in a daze, but young Mieus who was so eager to please had yet to prove herself in anything. She'd better not be all talk and no substance, he had a place for servants like that; the trash heap.

The tip of the finger that had been on Mieus' lips had slipped into her mouth a little, the girl putting on the most adorable, irresistible, and downright beautiful face she could muster. Forget being a fighter, a thousand years ago during the height of Algo's hedonistic civilization she could have it big as an actress, a screen heroine. That was all it was though; an act. "Master… I don't know what I'd do if the layans got to you while you were still damaged." She admitted in a tone that could have melted a heart.

But Siren did not have a heart, and certainly no part of him was capable of melting. He looked at her blankly. "I am hardly defenseless, Mieus."

"Yes, but still…"

One of the doors to the main area of Zelan slid open and they were joined by Warren who clomped into the bridge. He was right on time, well, technically a few seconds late. He had a medical supply bag slung over one shoulder and a two-handed palman sword in his free hand. Siren and Mieus were drawn to the arrival by the sound. "I'm here! Sorry I'm late." He apologized, heading over to the computers as he spoke.

As Mieus waved to him a little somebody had been left ignored and uninformed. Whistler's top half popped up again and it scrutinized the new stranger in the room. It did not recognise him in its registry or memory banks. It saw that the stranger was armed and carrying an offensive weapon. Finally, it realised that allied units were far too close to the stranger for comfort. Whistler did the math. It was simple, really. There was only one thing to be done.

Whistler was off like a little shot straight towards the unknown android, squealing like mad and acting like a guard dog that had broken free from its leash. From within the widened groove between its top and bottom half a panel folded away to reveal the snub-nosed barrel of a small laser. It whistled again furiously, then fired at the target.

Warren dropped the sword he was carrying, it clattered to the ground loudly and he raised his arm up to shield his body and face. This barely would have offered him protection had he not raised his barrier shield up at the same time. It dampened down the laser to nothing, so when the barrier was retracted the accumulated surplus energy was harmlessly dispersed. That action had been entirely reflex-based, Warren would have stopped and stared like an idiot had his movements been voluntary.

He stopped and stared like an idiot anyway when he lowered his arm, then heard a noisy clank moments after. He looked down. When the laser had failed Whistler had just plowed into him as if it were a miniature battering ram. It was like a tank being assaulted by a tricycle. Warren seemed confused, watching the little robot trying to push him over with its entire body.

"Whistler, no! Stop that, honey! He's not a target!" Mieus called as she hopped off her chair and made her way over to the two other machines. Siren started to laugh. He found it all rather funny, and it was only very few things which amused him nowadays. He watched Warren take a step back and then the whistle robot immediately close the distance with another ram. This action was repeated again, and then again for a third time. If it kept up for much longer Whistler was going to push Warren all the way out the door.

The mieu-type grabbed the whistle-type to stop it from harassing the warren-type, while the siren-type had a good chuckle in the background. Mieus lifted the robot clear off its wheels and held it in her arms as Warren moved around her to pick up his dropped weapon. It made the most interesting scraping noise as it was removed from the floor. Whistler watched him with its stalk of an eye, cooing in question. "What is that thing doing here?" Warren asked.

"I've named it Whistler. Whistler, class this android with allied status, okay?" She said and shook the robot harder than was necessary. It rattled and whined at being scolded, but the whine was also a concession to her demand. Mieus put it down again and the thing didn't move anymore, save for wheeling a little closer to her ankles.

"I thought I was under attack by a vacuum cleaner." Warren admitted, relieved.

Siren had stopped laughing now and he was back to being serious again. He had his legs crossed with a hand on his chin, thinking. Three little robots with far too much frivolity in them. That needed to change. "Get over here now, the both of you." He ordered with absolute authority. They of course obeyed him and fell into line like good servants should, with Whistler sitting between them. He had no use for the whistle robot however, he'd only worked on it out of enjoyment and to kill time.

He assumed Mieus would put Whistler somewhere safe when the fighting began. The red-haired girl was up to date and ready to go while the major had just turned up with no clear idea as to what was going on. He could allow Mieus to relay instructions to him but they all needed to be on the same page here; required to run off the same set of information. "Stand at perfect attention for briefing, soldiers." He said smoothly, seeing that they were far too relaxed than they were meant to be.

"Yes sir, sorry sir." Warren suddenly looked like he wanted to be somewhere else.

"Sorry, Master Siren." Mieus was studying her nails while listening, smiling prettily.

Siren scowled. "Kill your palman personalities for the moment; they are not needed here. Save this information and follow my instructions before all else. Do you comply?" It was a high request, but one he was in the right position to demand. Personality and palmanity was not essential to an android's function but it meant quite a lot to them, as it was a part of what made them unique. It was pretty much the equivalent of forcing palman soldiers to strip and endure a briefing naked.

Thankfully switching off the palman side of their programming for a short time was nowhere _near_ as serious as killing active emotion for good. They just needed to focus, and Siren could demand _anything_ of them that he wanted. It would be an honor. The faint notion of expression faded from Warren and Mieus' faces. Their voices became monotone and synchronized. "Affirmative Master, we comply. We are listening." They droned.

That was more like it. The separation made things easier, frankly Siren couldn't see why the palman race would want to make flawed sentient beings like androids anyway. Sentience was imperfection. It was like degrading something that could have been perfect knowingly, on purpose. But that was not important right now. "I will be concise. In sixty five minutes the layans will dock and enter this space station. I am going to enable life support as a gesture of goodwill. When they arrive you Warren, and you Mieus will kill them on sight. Send them back to hell."

He paused for a few moments to let them absorb the information. No protest, only the look of silent obedient concession in their eyes. They had killed before, it was nothing new. "Approximately one hundred and ten minutes from now I will join you in combat. This operation will end when all seven layan bodies are accounted for and no longer showing vital signs. I will forward you brief target information through the network."

He didn't have much information so there was not a lot of data to send. It barely took two seconds. All Siren had was glimpses of them from their exodus and estimations of their races, genders and physical descriptions. His servants would just have to flesh out the files themselves. Siren waited patiently as they worked through the target registry. They spoke with such synchronization that as if it was only one android speaking with two voices.

"File received. Activating target registry. Classifying palman male as target zero one. Classifying palman male as target zero two. Classifying palman male as target zero three. Classifying android male as target zero four. Classifying android female as target zero five. Classifying dezorian male as target zero six. Classifying unknown species female as target zero seven. Persons will be killed on sight. Target registration complete."

Perfect. Exactly what he wished to hear. Siren straightened up in his seat but kept his weapon lying in his lap. The cables connected to his arm stretched as he gestured to his servants. "This is all you need to know and all you need to believe. Act as good, loyal soldiers of Orakio and fight for your right to live in this world. Remember, it is the _layans_ who wish to put us back inside that dark place we know so well. Yourself, your partner and your master, too. We are all under threat. You may be yourselves again now."

Mieus awoke as if she had been daydreaming or in a light trance. She was smiling in a sunny manner after the orders were issued. He wasn't just trusting her with her own life, but with _his_ life too. He _trusted_ her! Nobody had ever done so before. "I won't disappoint you Master, I promise. I will fight them until my final breath!"

"But you don't breathe, Mieus." Warren reminded her as a soft aside. The girl just giggled and shrugged, it did not make any difference. Warren made a sighing sound and pinched the bridge of his nose with a finger and thumb. Sure, it was easy enough to look at killing orders through the cool, clear vision of machine acquiescence, but it was a different matter entirely when somebody was bleeding to death in your hands. "Master, I must ask a question regarding your orders. What if one of these target individuals does not show hostile behavior?"

"I don't see how that alters your orders, major. Kill them if they attack you. Kill them if they flee. Kill them if they proclaim their love for you; I don't care. Just make sure their hearts are quickly and effectively stilled." Siren announced with hostilities of his own, and yet he did not raise his voice once. Venom was wasted when one was shouting. "Please remember that every layan you _do not_ destroy will be one more that Mieus will have to face on her own."

And one thing he did not wish to see was Mieus injured or killed. Warren grimly shut up. There was no escaping the fact that people were going to die tonight. At least they were bad people, evil people, people who deserved to die.

The only thing they could do now was accept it, and later, implement it.


	19. The Spider's Web

Twenty minutes away from their destination the Landale received a radio communication from Zelan. Demi noticed it as a little red flashing light on the communications network she was carefully monitoring along with the ship's general wellbeing. She was focusing on that with dedication while her master concentrated on navigation and the piloting of their vehicle. She looked at the flashing dot with unease. Obviously it had to be a transmission from their enemy, and they would have to deal with it before they could land.

The fact that he could send a transmission to them at all meant that the rogue android had already hacked his way out of Zelan's read-only mode, assuming the reins of control. Demi looked to Wren sitting in the pilot's seat. He seemed perfectly blank, unconcerned. She was loathe to disturb him but it appeared she had no choice. "We've received a request for a video up-link from Zelan. I think Siren wants to talk with us. Should I accept?" She informed her master dutifully.

Wren did not even look away from his task. It was as if he hadn't heard her at all with the way he continued to update the navigational route, but after several seconds he finally answered her. It was with dispassion and apathy. "I have been anticipating this contact. Siren is a wren series, he understands how combat must be. Go and gather the others, I expect they will want to be present, but please inform Rune that _I_ wish to be the one in charge of negotiations."

He had _expected _contact? Well, he probably understood Siren and his thought processes better than she ever would. They'd have to convince their foe to allow them to land and give their mortal friends oxygen and heat, or else Wren and Demi would have to stand and fight on their own. To receive something they would have to give away something, and Demi didn't want to have to guess what the cost might be. "I will be as quick as I can."

When Demi hopped off her chair and left to gather the other teammates in the lounge Wren took a little while to secure a safe, reliable route in the Landale's autopilot system, as he had redesigned it himself when they had found the ship entombed beneath Tyler. A basic facsimile of his own neural pathways had been programmed into the system, so hopefully the ship would think as he thought and take sensible action during emergencies.

The android leant on the back of his chair with one hand and lightly rubbed down his face with the other. He didn't want to think about the kind of state his Zelan would be in once they extricate the enemy from his seat of power. It might take days or weeks or months to repair. This did not shake him the most; it hardly even bothered him at all. Wren was not afraid of a little hard work. He had not been afraid of anything since the war, and even then he had been unusually brave, or nonchalant, or stupid. Either way there had only existed one or two occasions when he had been honestly, brutally frightened.

Once the very first time his life was threatened, the other during… well, that was not the issue here. Wren had the memory of that fear and it kept jumping back up to the front of his mind, with the only way to truly get rid of it as deletion. He would not delete it. If he did he would forget what fear was, and Wren could not afford to think that he was invincible. He was not invincible. If he was then Siren was, and Siren needed to die.

He decided not to wait for Demi and the others to join him. Wren accessed the communications network and allowed a video and audio link to be established between the Landale and Zelan. He'd rather start this out on his own; he knew the siren-type frightened Demi. The blackness of space made a perfect projection screen, the video image superimposed over the ship's windscreen with audio coming out over the dashboard speakers. It projected somebody standing in front of a recording device of his own. Of course, it could only be one person standing there.

Siren looked directly at Wren and Wren stared right back at Siren. It was like gazing into a discoloured mirror. Introductions and pleasantries were short and formal, not at all sweet. "Greetings from the spaceship Landale." He said.

"Greetings from the space station Zelan."

"I trust you are keeping the facility in some semblance of order."

The red-haired android smirked at him. "I always take meticulous care of what is mine."

Wren narrowed his eyes slightly. Siren was trying to rile him up but it was not going to work, there was nothing substantial enough inside him to get riled up in the first place. Still, he thought that he could trust Zelan for the short term to the enemy android. Siren had no reason to be destructive to anything but his primary target. If anything Zelan was an asset to him, so he would not harm that asset. It was a bit of a cautious relief. "What would it take to remove you from Zelan without conflict or tribulation?" He ventured, preferring a non-violent method if possible.

The other android folded his arms and appeared to think about the question deeply, but he never broke eye contact with Wren. He was in a position of great power from where he was standing, he held all the cards and it was _him_ who got to make all the requests. There was only one thing that he wanted though, one simple and unshakable thing. Siren could forgive a former orakian but he could never, _ever_ forgive a fleshling with layan blood running through their veins.

"I will gladly give you back Zelan on two very important conditions. The first is that you deliver unto me your layan comrades who have turned away from the light and the one true way, that you will stand aside with your small servant and do nothing as I kill them, one by one. You may keep your servant, as she is a former orakian I do not care. The second condition is that afterwards you will swear utter allegiance to myself and Lord Orakio, and henceforth you will call me master until your death. You will follow my way for the rest of your life."

Only two conditions, but they were _major_ ones. Wren considered them anyway out of politeness, weighed them against the risks he and his friends took by ignoring them and came to a single, simple conclusion. Wren had his pride. He had never called anybody 'master' his entire life and he knew that he never would. Better that his friends risk death than face it with certainty. He was loyal to them and he trusted they would get Zelan back. "Please forgive the colourful turn of my language, Siren, but I have processed your requests and you can take your conditions and shove them."

Somebody on Siren's side of the broadcast off-screen laughed for a second at Wren's choice of words. That somebody shut up quickly moments after Siren glared off-screen. This struck Wren as incredibly odd, as there was not meant to be anybody left aboard the station save for their enemy. The laugh sounded strangely familiar too. Siren snorted and waved a hand dismissively at the Landale's pilot. "Very well, if that is what you wish. I have offered you salvation multiple times and you have rejected them on all occasions. If you truly desire to be a filthy layan then you may die like one, and Zelan will remain mine."

The sliding door to the cockpit opened and Demi along with her five flesh-and-blood friends filed inside. Wren turned to look over his shoulder for a moment and Siren glanced over as well, counting them in his mind to make sure they matched with his target registry. Good, they were all there. He was not mistaken. Wren went back to the conversation at hand. "We will engage in combat, then. I ask that you reinstate life-support back into Zelan's host protocol. Give my comrades a chance to participate in battle."

His 'comrades' remained silent as was expressly requested by Demi, but Rune and Chaz looked like they really, _really_ wanted to say something very badly to the red haired wren-type. They felt like they should be in control of the situation and they were not. Siren looked at Wren and smirked, finding something funny. "Why would I want to do that? Your landale-class ship is merely a glorified freighter unable to defend itself. All I need do is send out my servants in battle-ready fighter ships and they will blow you out of the stars."

… Yes, that was also quite possible too. They were standing on thin ice now. They needed to _have_ something, something they could use as leverage to barter for oxygen and heat. Wren remained stone-faced as he grudgingly decided to pull out his trump card, his last resort. He was loathe to do it, but they were getting nowhere with the negotiations and he detected that Chaz was going to explode if the situation wasn't defused soon. "I am equipped with a positronic bolt unit. I am quite sure you are aware of what this is. All I need do is board your ship, life support or not, and I can destroy your base within ten seconds of concentrated fire. I could kill you easily."

It was obviously a bluff but it was the only leverage they had, and it was the truth. Wren was perfectly capable of destroying Zelan with his ultimate weapon. He'd hate to do it but if it was the only way… no, he could not do it. Its only use was as a bargaining chip. Siren had a feeling that it was only a hollow threat but he could not stand to take such a risky chance. "I do not believe you. Nevertheless, your filthy layan friends will be permitted to breathe and enter Zelan. In return you will disable your apparent positronic bolt unit. Is this acceptable to you?"

"I can accept those terms."

Rune finally broke his silence. He couldn't help himself; he had to have his say. Nobody could really silence him for long. The Lutz pointed at Siren accusingly. "That's crazy! You can't trust him! How do you know he isn't lying? He _knows_ you won't blow up your own base but we won't know if he's kept his word until we're on the floor writhing and gasping!"

"The layan has every right not to trust me." Siren told his audience in bland monotone, recognizing Rune as the one who had initially woken him up. "But I still will keep my word. I do not need to rely on atmospheric conditions to kill you; my own two hands and my loyal servants are more than enough."

Siren beckoned off-screen in a bit of a summoning gesture. Two other androids walked into shot and stood beside him to his left. The girl android actually _smiled_ and waved to the camera before she even identified who it was she was waving to. The gold android spoke in his light albion accent that was pretty much extinct in the present, just another relic. "Hello, we will be your welcome-wagon once you touch down on bright, sunny-"

Mieus screamed and pointed at the screen. "Mother! Grandfather!"

Demi's eyes went as wide as saucers as well. "Mieus?"

"Mieus?"

"_Colonel_?"

"Major? You are awake?"

"Hold on, you _know_ the colonel?"

"You _know_ my grandfather?"

"Wait, that's Demi's-"

"I'm confused…"

This sudden burst of heated dialogue happened practically all at once. Mieus shouted at Demi, Demi shouted back at Mieus, Wren just echoed her then Warren finally recognized _him_, prompting Wren to stare at the major in disbelief. After that Warren and Mieus turned to look at each other and fired off questions of their own. It had never occurred to them that they might be connected somehow via a third person. Rika piped up at that point and realized that the android girl on the screen was the one who had attacked her the other night. Finally, Warren put a hand to his head and moaned in deep confusion.

And then there was laughter. It was coming from Siren. "It seems as though there is a history here I did not expect. How fascinating." Mieus was bristling beside him like an angry cat, as if one push would send her over the edge into a flurry of shouting and swearing and flashing claws. Warren just looked sad, maybe a little let-down. Siren continued. "I have said everything that I needed to say to your small clan. We have come to a compromised understanding. Come aboard Zelan and we may kill each other. It will be… fun I suppose. Until then, farewell."

With that he casually walked out of shot and out of the room, leaving his servants to continue the broadcast. The two parties just watched one another for several uncertain seconds. Nobody spoke. If anybody said a word any number of things could happen, all of them bad. The tension could be cut with a knife. Warren seemed like he was terrified of touching Mieus at the moment but if he didn't do something soon she would go off. He put both his hands on her shoulders and pulled her closer towards him, leaning against his front. She relaxed. It was a relief.

Rika was sensitive to the tense situation. She felt like a stranger looking in on the beginnings of a family feud. It was funny considering all of them were androids, but nonetheless she seized Chaz by the upper arm and hauled him to the door of the cockpit. "Maybe we should go and give you all some privacy. Looks like you know one another. C'mon Chaz, come with me." She said as she pulled.

He resisted a bit as Rika tried to haul him away, but she was stronger than she outwardly appeared and he couldn't resist for long. He couldn't dig his heels into the ground either; there was no traction. "How can they know one another? They're the enemy."

But Raja and Hahn were also doing what Rika said. They left the cockpit with Chaz being gently pulled behind them. They might as well get prepared for the impending battle with their spare time. Only Rune remained and he refused to leave, but he stood in the corner of the room and stayed totally silent. He was thinking hard and fast with a serious frown on his face, but he was also listening intently too. Perhaps it was eavesdropping but nobody had expressly asked him to leave.

He had only been anticipating one android, not three. That made matters far more complicated. He watched Demi flounder where she was standing and then clasp her hands together as if in prayer. "Mieus… you're awake. Oh gosh, I'm sorry. Are you okay? Talk to me, please."

Whatever kind of peace she was deriving from Warren shattered and she lashed out at the screen in anger. Her hands were clenched into fists and her arms were shaking, her deep blue eyes bright. "Don't you dare give me that crap, mother! You know exactly how I am! After everything that happened to me you let him put me to sleep! You let him _kill_ me! How could you? _How could you_?"

"Calm down, darling. It's okay…" Warren said softly in the hopes of making her feel better. He could tell that she was entirely far too tense. He tried to hug her, and then…

All that succeeded in doing was to redirect Mieus' anger briefly from Demi to himself. She spun towards him, shrugged his hands off her shoulders, and then she reached out and slapped him across the face. If she couldn't attack Wren and Demi for the moment then at least her partner was within an arm's reach. "Shut up! It's not okay! How dare you say its okay!" She turned back to the two androids on the Landale and all the anger seemed to evaporate out of her. Now she looked close to tears. "I needed you and you did nothing."

Wren chose to ignore Mieus' little outburst. He was still rather surprised to see the major standing there, beside his technical granddaughter, touching her and even addressing her with affection. He was meant to be dead. They _both_ were. "I see that you live again. Is this Siren's doing? He is our enemy. You will not attack us when we board."

Warren gasped in shock when Mieus struck him. It wasn't necessarily a hard slap but it still stung. He held his cheek, waited for a moment to absorb the pain impulses and then looked back to the computer screen. "We cannot do that. Siren is our master. I know you can't understand the implications of that, colonel, but servitude is our life." He removed his hand. Mieus had left a faint mark on him. He smiled. "Forren, it's been so long. I didn't realize you were that particular forren-type until I checked my network addresses and matched the memory of your signal to you."

"Why is he calling you colonel, master? You're not a colonel." Demi asked him anxiously. She hadn't expected any of this to happen, _especially_ Mieus. It was all an awful rush that didn't quite feel so good. He didn't have a military rank, and if he _did_ he'd never told her about it. But on the other hand that title didn't sound so foreign, either.

"You are correct. I am not a colonel." Wren told Demi and then he seemed to deflate, mimicking a sigh. The past had finally caught up with him. Somehow, someday he knew that it would. He just wished it could have been during a time when he was alone. "I am still only a lieutenant colonel. I declined the promotion shortly after I killed you. I could not take it; it was tainted. I had to put forward my notice of resignation instead. It was all I could do to try and clear up the mistake you had made, major."

Mieus had come to her senses and realized what she had done. She made an 'aww' sound and took Warren by the chin, inspecting the mark she had made. It would be gone in about ten minutes or so but she regretted making it all the same. The major just looked back at her like a kicked puppy. "I'm sorry sweetie. I didn't mean to hit you but I just got so _angry_. You poor thing, come here…"

"It's alright, I know how you feel. I'm pretty upset too." He explained to her gently, taking her gloved hands and holding them in his own. He didn't resist her as she stood on tip-toes to kiss him kindly in apology. He just didn't know how to react to seeing Forren alive and functional again, to know that he had spent a thousand years in imprisonment and suffering while his executioner had enjoyed a millennium of life. It wasn't fair. It was horribly unfair and yet of all things Warren actually felt _glad_ to see somebody he knew and recognised in this dead new world.

"So you are now part of the enemy. I will write you two into my target registry now." Wren said with concealed resignation. He could care less whether Warren or Mieus wound up dead; they would be dead anyway. Killing them would just be righting a wrong and bringing things back to how they were meant to be. He impartially watched the kiss end and thought it a mockery of palman emotive behavior. It was pathetic, with no purpose. "Mieus, listen to me. You have been mislead by Siren."

"Please listen to him." Demi added by Wren's side. "He is a cruel, unkind android. All he'll do is use you to get at what he wants." But she didn't think she'd get through to her, Mieus had always been stubborn and pigheaded to a fault. It was just something that had inexplicably grown with her strange personality over time.

"By all means," Mieus smiled as she cuddled back against Warren's front, "he can use me as much as he wants. I'd welcome it, actually. At least then I'd be contributing to something important. At least my existence here will _matter_. I don't care about you anymore. If the both of you don't care one way or the other whether I die then why shouldn't I think the same of you? If my master orders me to kill you then you had just better watch out."

There was a sense of righteous justice in Mieus' spiteful words. In a way Demi and her master sort of deserved it. They had thrown her away. She herself would have felt terrible and hurt if Wren were to ever discard _her_. She had failed and never had she felt it so deeply than she did right now. "Mieus... you know I love you, don't you?" The small android girl told her softly.

Mieus just looked back at her blankly. She knew that Demi believed her own words but it was not enough. Saying that she loved her was never enough, there had never been any proof. Androids probably weren't even capable of love anyway. "It's far too late for that now. You had twenty four years and you missed it." She stated sadly but firmly.

"Forren?" Warren said soberly, thankfully killing the conversation between Demi and her estranged daughter. If it carried on Mieus might get upset again and Warren didn't want that, she had been hurt enough in her short, sad life. Wren focussed on the major to show that he silently held his attention. He was glad that he was holding onto the fiery mieu-type now, it seemed to give him enough confidence to speak with the person who had killed him. "There's only one thing that I want to ask you, and I think you already know what the question will be. Please tell me. I have to know."

Wren knew what he wanted to hear. Warren had always been like an obedient little puppy, loyal, amiable and always desperate to please, but like all dogs he had sharp teeth, so one day he had turned feral and decided to use them. No matter how loving an animal once it attacked the master its fate was to be put down. Wren had just been the one left holding the smoking gun. He had felt betrayed because damn it, he had cared about the master but he cared about Warren as well. It just translated itself as anger.

Yes, so he had once been a very angry, hot-tempered grump of a wren-type. He could barely remember it now, but at the same time it was as clear as a bell. He closed his eyes, wishing, if only for a moment that he could feel something _freshly_ again. "... Very well. What you suspect was correct. It was me."

"That was very cruel of you."

"I had my reasons."

Mieus glanced up at her partner but didn't say a word, wondering why he didn't seem furious. She knew that _she'd_ be burning with hatred and thoughts of revenge. The girl realised they had another thing in common now, they both owed their suffering to one singular man. Warren looked like he was thinking for a bit, about his predicament and what Wren had said, then he relaxed and laughed gently with self-pity. "I wish I could hate you, but I don't. I wish you could board Zelan so I could take my vengeance upon you, but I can't. I don't seem to have it in me. I'm not revenge-oriented."

"We will dock with Zelan in just under ten minutes." Wren told him lifelessly. He put his hand down upon Demi's small shoulder. The girl did not react to him. "I trust we will be able to talk more then."

But they both knew that was not going to happen. "I guess we'd better roll out the red carpet." A pause. "... It was nice seeing you again, Forren."

"You too, major."

The connection between the Landale and Zelan finally ended. The image and audio faded, turning the projection screen back into the windscreen of their ship. Rune watched the two androids just stand there for a few moments longer, then Demi turned and climbed back into her chair while Wren sat down in the pilot's seat. Not an audible word passed between then, they merely went right back to their tasks. The esper got up from where he was leaning against the wall and quietly walked over to his friends.

He cleared his throat to remind them that he was still there. Leaning over the pilot's chair Rune spoke quietly enough so that Demi would not have to hear, only her master. "I don't care who any of them are. If they're with Siren then they're no different than he is. We'll have to destroy them." Maybe he was being a hard-ass, but it wasn't like they hadn't mown through legions of machines before.

Would Rune have a different opinion were they up against a handful of espers? They would never know. "There will be no complications." Wren replied to him coldly.

"Yes," Demi agreed from across the cockpit, "no complications at all."

†††

The Landale docked with Zelan and the space station guided them inside safely. It was strange to know that Siren was authorizing such great care over their ship, only for the purpose of killing them later in a violent and bloody manner. Maybe he wanted to keep the Landale intact in the docking bay for some kind of later use. Certainly there was no other spaceship like it in the star system. Rune and his team of friends and warriors were back on Zelan once more, now the territory of the enemy.

There was heat and oxygen outside of the hull of their vehicle but not as Wren and Demi had once willed it, the temperature a little colder and the air a little thinner than what could be considered 'normal'. Rune realised that he could see his own breath fogging up in the air. He knew that it was another form of pressure, to cut down their battle effectiveness and give a fighting edge to those who did not care about breathing or maintaining body temperature. He saw that Rika standing beside him was already rubbing her arms briskly, trying to coax her goosebumps away.

Dangers existed for people who breathed shallow air for a protracted period of time. Rune was well aware of them, having lived in the mountains surrounding the Myst Vale for so long. Raja was also no stranger to light air and the altitude sickness that it carried; he had climbed a mountain or six way back in his youth. As they stepped down the metal ramp onto the raised platforms of the space dock the dezorian moved to the point of the small group and spun around dramatically, his robes whirling.

"Remember to breathe carefully and mindfully when there's not enough air to go around! If you don't take the proper precautions your heart will start to race, your blood will begin to starve and eventually you'll just pass out onto the floor. If that doesn't happen then you'll probably start to see things instead, stuff that isn't real." He explained to everybody seriously. Rune nodded when he was done; he was more or less correct. It made perfect sense to Hahn and Chaz and Rika decided to believe them, for they would know best.

A great silence consumed the space dock and the entirety of Zelan, one that was hollow and empty, like a vacuum. There were voices in the cold empty that were inaudible, unspoken, existing only in code. It was almost as if the protectors could sense it but could not be sure if it were real. At least they outnumbered the enemy. That was about the only thing they had left going for them.

Swords and daggers were unsheathed, claws came out of hiding, and guns were adjusted and prepared. Once they left the spaceship dock the hunting would begin. They gathered for a brief conference. "So who's going to go with who? I think we should only split into two groups, because there's three androids we have to take care of instead of just one." Chaz said to the rest of the party. "If that's the case then I'm going with Rika. There's no way you're going to split us up."

He said that with a smile. As if anybody would ever _attempt_ to split them up in the first place. "I'll go with you." Hahn volunteered. He had traveled with them the most during the war and felt comfortable with Chaz and Rika by his side.

And they'd need a healer, too. Hahn and Rika knew some competent healing techniques and Chaz could tend to a wound in a pinch, but they were all fighters at heart and needed to focus on combat thusly. "Yeah, me too." Raja chimed in with a nod towards Chaz and Rika. "I'll follow you lot. No offense or anything but I'd rather join a team with people I can actually _heal_. You metal fellows are beyond me."

Wren and Demi were perfectly capable of attending to their own medical care. They decided to stick together too as there was no beneficial reason for them to stay apart. This desire was not voiced out loud; it only needed to be commonly assumed and understood by the both of them.

This only left Rune as the last person to join a team. Chaz already had nearly a full team going for him and the esper felt he was still partnered with Wren from the Azura expedition the other night. There were no proper healers in the group but Demi's medical power unit should be enough. Shrugging with nonchalance Rune smiled. "Alright, so it changes last night's plan a little bit. Considering the circumstances I guess that's a good idea. I'll stick with Wren and Demi and offer some magical support. Is there any way to contact one another if, say, the shit hits the fan?"

"As long as nobody has deleted my login clearance I can probably hijack the PA system if I can get close enough to a computer terminal." Demi told Rune in a hesitant manner. It looked like she was still in a little shock from earlier. The girl became apologetic. "I would have used it the night Siren took over but you were all asleep and I would not have been able to hear you communicate back."

"On our end I guess I could say a prayer and hope that you on the other end of this sky castle can hear it, esper." Raja announced, speaking to Rune. He'd probably wind up having a feeling just like when he and the bishop had met on that snowfield so long ago. It couldn't have been any longer than forty eight hours but it felt much, much longer. "Is that good enough for you?"

"Yeah, sure."

A little white box squeaked at them from across the space dock, sitting right at the entrance to the rest of the station. It sounded a bit like a bird's mating call. It was the size of a small dog and sat on orb-like wheels, with an extendable telescopic eye which peered at them knowingly. The strange machine squealed at them for a second time, urgently, then it began to back up and away.

Demi reacted as though she had understood its musical, high-pitched language, which of course she had. She took a step forward and reached out to the retreating robot in surprise. "Wait! What did you say?" She gasped.

"It will lead us to its creator. Follow it." Wren ordered and as soon as he said that Whistler performed a speedy three-point-turn and sped off as fast as its little wheels could carry it. The android didn't need to tell anybody twice. The protectors were upon that squealing box immediately like hounds upon a hart, weapons at the ready for when its master came into sight and range.

It was a good robot and it had plenty of pep to it, but it was also small and a good pair of legs could keep up with it with some moderate effort. Whistler wasn't trying to lose them and it wasn't hoping to get captured either; it was merely the bait which would lead its pursuers into a trap. Rune, Wren and Demi were at the front and doing a fine job of keeping up, while Chaz, Rika, Hahn and Raja were struggling half a dozen paces behind.

When they came to an intersection Whistler did not hesitate and continued straight ahead, on-course to the very center and heart of the space station. Rune and the rest of his group did not pause either and continued the chase, but Chaz threw an arm out to Rika and stopped her in her tracks. He started to say something but suddenly Hahn plowed straight into him, nearly knocking the youth to his knees. Raja trundled to a halt behind them, wheezing his lungs out.

"Chaaaaz!" Rika whined and ripped her arm out of his grasp. "What are you doing? We're going to lose them!"

"We're supposed to split up. It's a large station to cover and that robot might be a decoy. Come on, I say we go the other way." All paths eventually led to the same place, anyway. The androids and Rune should be able to take care of themselves. Chaz felt slightly dizzy, as did the other male members of their group. Too much breathing of too little air, but at least Rika felt alright. After a few moments Chaz turned and ran down the other intersection, trying to control his breathing better this time.

Oh, fine. It was either do as he said or lose him entirely. Rika huffed and caught up to him within seconds, then easily surpassed him. It was difficult to run in toe shoes and a dress but she managed it, then Hahn popped up by her side. The scholar had always been a rather talented runner. Together they left Chaz and Raja in the proverbial dust.

Chaz gritted his teeth in pain and annoyance as his burned shoulder prickled horribly each time he threw an arm out to help balance him as he ran. He didn't want Rika to leave him behind but she already was. All he had now was Raja huffing and puffing along behind him. "Rika!" He called. "Wait up!"

Shortly after turning a corner Rika stopped and so did Hahn. It wasn't because of Chaz. In the hallway a stone's throw away from them stood Mieus. It seemed like she had been waiting just for them, a dark and smoky smile upon her lips. A shiver ran down Rika's spine and Hahn gallantly stepped in front of her to protect her from attack. He had a weak constitution compared to the numan girl but that was not the point; he still felt that he should protect her.

"You." Rika said, assuming a combat stance.

As Chaz and Raja came around the bend in the corridor Mieus laughed softly. "Come and catch me, sweetheart." She replied.

Just like Whistler Mieus turned and ran, giggling all the while. She was enjoying this and she loved the thrill of the chase. Hahn and Rika couldn't let her get away. "C'mon!" Rika cried and pulled Hahn along with her, she had revived Mieus once and thought it was her responsibility to make sure she would never harm anybody else. Hahn could help her, and Chaz and Raja too if they kept up.

The android girl's long red hair streamed out behind her like a streak as she kicked her sprint up a notch to reach the second intersection in the path. The protectors weren't the only ones running on a loose plan. Theirs was built on teamwork, on coordination, and faith for their master.

It was really very exciting.

†††

_/ "I've got four targets chasing me, two up front and two behind. Ready to split with me? I'm coming up to your checkpoint now." /_

_/ "What? You want to split up with me **already**? Ha ha ha… Let me lend you a hand. I'm ready." /_

_/ "Oh be quiet; you're not funny. Hee hee… Be careful okay?" /_

_/ "Yes dear." /_

_/ "How is Whistler's progress, master?" /_

_/ "No complications to report. Targets one, four and five are mine. Focus on your own objectives, you two." /_

_/ "Yes sir. Targets three and seven belong to me." /_

_/ "That leaves me with targets two and six, right?" /_

_/ "Affirmative. Go." /_

†††

Chaz was becoming worried. Half of their team was creeping further and further away from him and if it were not for his wound making him hiss and flinch in pain he might stand a chance of keeping pace with the others. The lightheadedness he was experiencing continued to deepen, too, causing bright spots to swell and burst in his vision. Rika and Hahn followed the red-haired girl down one pathway of the intersection and Chaz didn't think twice about following them, stumbling once when his sight greyed out a bit.

The stumble allowed Raja to take the lead for just a second or two, right at the point when the corridor branched off into two separate paths. That was it, that was enough to change the outcome of the entire evening, and ultimately Chaz Ashley's life for forevermore.

He sensed a sudden blur of motion and Raja was roughly slammed into the face of the metal wall, his shoulder and side impacting with the hard surface and creating a heavy thumping sound. The dezorian priest stuck his temple due to the blow and he was out like a light almost instantaneously, rough yet painless at least for the moment. He'd wind up having the most horrible of headaches as soon as he woke up. He crumpled down to the floor like a pile of rags, lying perfectly still.

The hunter had witnessed it all happen. The gold android from the broadcast had come out of nowhere and mashed the bishop like an enraged bull, but he had been aiming for _him_; Chaz. He stood between the hunter and the retreating Mieus, cutting Chaz off from Rika and Hahn. He was a big android, getting around him might be tricky and he couldn't leave Raja behind. Chaz stepped back and held his sword at the ready, adjusting his stance for battle.

He'd missed and hit the wrong person. Gah. Warren dropped down to one knee and checked Raja's neck for a pulse. He glanced to Chaz for a moment and held up a hand to him as if saying; 'Give me a minute, we can fight soon. Just let me see if he's okay.' There was a pulse and he was still breathing, it didn't even seem like he had broken any bones. "What a hardy old man. He's only unconscious." Warren diagnosed, rising again.

"Aiming for me?" Chaz asked, his body tense and edgy. If he hadn't stumbled the android would have tackled right into his wounded shoulder. He was the last one standing in his taxed little group, but he thought that he could take this wren-type. It would be easy. He was no stranger to fighting humanoid machines.

"You're lucky I didn't chop your friend in half. I was considering it." The major admitted, raising the sword that he held in his hand. He cocked his head slightly as he examined the youth standing in front of him. He bore a striking resemblance to the son of his first master. They might have been around the same age, he supposed. "You're rather young for layan scum."

"People tell me that all the time." Chaz joked but worried about his friends. He was going to be busy here taking apart this machine, he hoped they wouldn't be needing him anytime soon. When he saw the sword Warren was carrying Chaz relaxed. He knew swords like he knew the back of his hand, if things progressed to a sword fight he'd be back in his element at last. "So are you going to use that blade? You going to fight me?"

"I've been given orders to kill any layan I see. I can't disobey those orders. Please go easy on me, I'm just an amateur and I haven't been in a battle for a very long time. Come and strike me." It was an invitation.

"What about Raja?"

He assumed Chaz was referring to his fallen friend. "He's in no immediate danger, but you are. I'll suffocate him once I'm finished with you. He won't feel a thing." Warren wasn't trying to threaten him, he was just informing Chaz about what would happen once he was done. He removed the medical bag he had slung over one shoulder and set it down beside the unconscious dezorian. Turning back to the hunter he smiled fondly and beckoned. "Come on, lets get this over with."

Chaz frowned. He didn't like to see that much confidence in an enemy. Moreover, it was like talking to a normal palman instead of a machine. This wren had more personality than all the other wrens Chaz had seen put together. It was creepy.

The first strike was his. His hunter training whispered to him that it meant Warren was planning to begin his own assault with a counter strike. Nevertheless…

He raised his sword, uttered a war cry and lunged, letting the battle begin.

†††

_/ "Alright, target six is currently out of commission. I'm working my way through target two now but it might take a while. He seems pretty eager. Mieus, you are now free to engage your targets without interruption. Good luck." /_

Good, because it was getting progressively harder to keep her distance from the pink-haired girl trailing her like the wind. _Man_ she had quite a pair of legs to her name. The good-looking guy she had with her was keeping pace admirably as well. If she had a heart it would have been beating wildly with excitement. It was important to start their battle far away from her partner and his skirmish so any screaming in anger or in pain would not be heard by either party.

Another bend in the path and that was far enough. Mieus grinned with a flashing of teeth and headed straight for the wall, but instead of slamming right into it she got her boots upon the surface and ran right up the wall, kicking off at the very height of her climb and flipping herself into the air. Rika and Hahn ran right beneath her, they could not help it or stop themselves in time. Mieus spun, angling her body gracefully and landing in a crouch, now behind her enemies and cutting off the protectors from their lagging friends. They could not go back.

Not without going through Mieus, first. She stood from her crouch just as Hahn and Rika turned around to face her. The claws slid out of her gloves slowly, making a silky metallic noise. They were long and hooked and beautifully sharp. "The moment you stepped on this space station you became destined to die by my hands. I won't make it easy for either of you. I'll rip you both into tiny, bleeding shreds!" She threatened with glee.

Rika looked about and finally realised that Hahn was the only other person by her side. Chaz and Raja had completely vanished. Hahn just smiled weakly at her and shrugged. It looked like they would have to deal with the android girl on their own. Rika wasn't very concerned, she didn't need Chaz around for absolutely _everything_. "What makes you think you can defeat us? We're very experienced fighters." The numan asked, cautious.

"And I'm an experienced _murderer_. I will make you feel so much pain that you'll be _begging_ for death by the end. My master Siren has ordered me to kill all you layans so that is what I will do." Her eyes became distant and she smiled dreamily. "Once you filth are out of the way he will praise me for being such a good girl."

So it was killing for affection. Mieus was starved of love and would do anything to fill that empty void where her soul should be. Rika suddenly felt sorry for her. She had liked Mieus, well, back when she had only been the harmless face of a sleeping angel. Her beauty was merely skin-deep, on the inside there existed only a hollow. "That is really very pathetic." Rika said at last, sadly.

Mieus was unconcerned. Why would she believe a single thing the layans said? They were liars and cheats, servants to the dark gods and they corrupted everything that they touched. She had to remain strong and believe in her master. Everything focussed upon belief. "I don't have all day. If you're going to attack me then hurry up about it, or else I'll kill your cute little friend where he stands."

When he realised Mieus was talking about him Hahn blushed slightly. Bad guy or not he still couldn't help but think that the girl was exceptionally lovely. It sucked that he was going to have to ruin those good looks. The scholar drew the brand new gleaming daggers from his belt and adjusted the angle of the blades in his palms, experimenting until it felt just right. He sighed and stepped up to the challenge. "If that's what you want then go ahead and try. You'll have to fight me before you even get a _chance_ to touch Rika."

And boy, what a horrible risk he was taking! Hahn was terrified. He knew that compared to his other friends he was ridiculously weak, that was why he had trained so hard for so long to catch up, but he was aware that it would not be enough. It would be better for all involved if Rika defended _him_, not the other way around, but he was responsible as Chaz's close friend to protect the woman that Chaz loved. Hahn could feel that he was shaking in his boots but he had to be strong, had to be strong, had to be strong…

Hahn darted forward and stabbed with his finely-honed dagger, drew back just as quickly as he had attacked, alternated hands and slashed diagonally, then sideways, the blade moving in quick blurs of motion that almost seemed blue. Mieus threw her weight onto her heels and her calves and leaned away from the first stab, then twisted and ducked to avoid strikes two and three. A few thin strands of her fiery red hair fell to the ground. That was all.

"Stop it, Hahn! At least let me help!" Rika complained but couldn't really see a way to insert herself into the fight, it was a two-person death dance and she knew it. The scholar was moving very fast but Mieus was easily keeping pace with her evasive tactics. From the sidelines Rika raised her hands and used her deban technique, hoping to offer him some kind of defense if he wouldn't accept anything else.

Mieus got underneath him as he thrust out for another stab, going straight for his midsection and chest. She fit into the strange embrace and raked him hard with her claws, tearing through the compressed air that was the deban technique and shredding into his clothing, armor and flesh. Blood flowed, but not _nearly_ hard enough to satisfy her.

He grunted in pain but his concealed armor saved him from most of the injury. Hahn stepped back and raised an arm up defensively just in time to block a second slashing attack destined for his face, her forearm smacking against his wrist. He pushed her away roughly to add some space between them but Mieus came back with a vengeance and roundhouse kicked him to the ground.

Blood spattered on the metal floor and became smeared when Hahn struggled to get to his feet again. His chest burned terribly but it wasn't bad, it was only moderate pain. Mieus was impatient and wouldn't think twice about kicking the man when he was down, and possibly shoving a set of four bladed claws into his back. "Is that it?" She cried with a triumphant, disappointed smile. She kicked him hard in the arm as he struggled to his hands and knees and Hahn went down again. "I had such expectations of you layan filth and is _this_ the extent of your combat prowess? How disgusting!"

Rika tapped Mieus on the shoulder. She turned around. "Hey." She said.

She slapped Mieus so hard that had she been made of authentic flesh and blood she would have either become bruised black and blue or just knocked out entirely. Rika put her entire arm into the strike. Mieus doubled over with her long hair obscuring her face, motionless for the moment. In this brief time of peace Rika helped Hahn up to his feet and treated the wound with a gires technique, but it was really nothing serious.

"You okay, Rika?" Hahn asked sheepishly, his voice a little unsteady.

"Damn it, I'm not made of glass. I can fight too." She scolded, focussing on the restorative technique.

Suddenly there was laughter, an unstable giggling which emanated from the android girl. Her shoulders trembled with it and she brushed aside the obscuring strands of hair to reveal her face. She was wearing a mad, amused grin. "Wow… nobody has hit me for a very long time. It brings back memories. I had forgotten how _good_ it felt…"

Hahn launched a wat technique at her before she could do anything else. A brittle, tinkling sound filled the air as Mieus' guard arm and part of her torso absorbed the skill, encasing the limb in an inch-thick layer of ice. She looked at it in serene, childish wonderment. Her fingers were frozen, so too was the joint in her elbow. Even her left breast was sealed, the cold causing the faint outline of her nipples to be vaguely apparent under her red bodysuit. Hahn couldn't help but look, his gaze dropped down automatically to stare at that and Mieus _definitely_ noticed it.

"Hey, eyes up here please!" She ordered sharply, angrily.

He obeyed her without thinking, raising his eyes and his hands and dropping his guard. He hadn't meant to look, he _really_ hadn't, he was a married man after all! "I'm sorry-" He began to say.

Then thick and heavy cracks formed around the casing as she clenched her hand all of a sudden, with inpalman strength. Mieus retracted her claws, drew her fist back and punched Hahn hard with the results of his own technique, striking him in the chin with metal, synthetic flesh and the coldness of the ice. Rika heard a hideous crunch as Hahn's jaw fractured and the poor man moaned, unable to open his mouth wide enough for a scream.

Hahn hit the ground again and this time he was down and out for good, spitting out a mouthful of blood and a tooth and then lying perfectly still. He struggled to maintain consciousness for a few moments but he was gone, he had already tried his best. Mieus straightened up and inspected her gloved knuckles, the ice falling off in brittle clumps and sheets. There was blood on her knuckles. She raised her loose fist to her mouth and kissed them sensually, tasting Hahn's blood already turning quite cold.

"He was a pervert. He deserved what he got." Mieus reasoned gently, nudging Hahn with the toe of her boot. "Anyway, it's your turn now. Hope you put up a better fight than he did." She added, stepping away from from the man.

Rika glared daggers at the girl from where she stood. She didn't know what to say, there was nothing she _could_ say now. It was time to speak with her claws.

†††

_/ "Target three has been clawed into submission. Just gotta finish up target seven and then I'll be by your side very soon, Master Siren. Please be careful with yourself, you're not entirely repaired yet." /_

It was sweet that she worried. Siren didn't mind if Mieus became so attached to him, it would make her loyalty all the stronger. Ten minutes had passed since the layans had stepped into his territory and already two were out of the fight. His servants were doing well but they could stand to be doing a little better, too. They would learn.

Siren set Zelan's main computer into standby mode and folded his arms, waiting. This was not their original plan but they were doing well with it, it was pleasing to see Warren and Mieus refusing to succumb to the hatred that was running through their minds, soullessly fighting the enemies which seemed to have no relation to their past. Siren had taken those for himself, the two which had awoken him from his slumber and the Le Cille girl. Oh, how he so wanted to get his hands on that girl…

Whistler was leading the trio straight to him. He had found a use for the little robot after all. Siren checked his gun one last time and then focussed for a minute on his spellcasting hand, light waves of clear heat rising from his fingertips. This dark magic which had been granted to him was a beneficial curse, a means to fight the filthy layan race on their own terms. He had never regretted those powers, not even once.

He could hear footsteps approaching and the electric hum of globular wheels on the smooth floor, with whistles and clicks and squeals. Siren turned around. Wren and Demi with Rune close behind them entered the main control area, Whistler shooting across the room to roll to a halt by Siren's side. The blue-haired layan looked like he was having trouble breathing, but that was subsiding as his heartbeat returned to normal. Demi kind of hid behind Wren and his great height. She was afraid.

"How kind of you to drop in." Siren said dully, then smiled. He sent a silent signal to Zelan and the metal door behind the three slammed shut and locked, the clearance light switching from green to red. They were now trapped inside. There was no escape.

"This atmosphere is not capable of sustaining natural life comfortably." Wren stated for the sake of his lightheaded, cold, gasping friend. "You assured us that you would keep your word."

"And I have." The enemy wren-type smirked with an underlying shade of cruelty. He did not move as the three protectors slowly approached him, until they were ten feet away from one another. "I asked Warren for the correct oxygen content and temperature for optimal palman living conditions and then I decided to halve it. Your layan allies will not be killed by the atmosphere. That is all I promised."

"It's fine…" Rune said as he straightened up and smiled reassuringly, "I'm fine. It's not a problem."

"So it has come to this." Siren announced softly. "I regret killing orakians, even if they have renounced the title."

"If this is the way that orakians operate then I would rather remain layan."

Siren became deathly serious. "You will regret saying that. Oh yes, you will regret it for the rest of your life." The android esper fell into an attacking stance.

"Which shouldn't be more than… oh, perhaps another ten minutes."


	20. The Black Widow and the Huntsman

It was a heated stand-off. Mieus was in her standard battle stance, loose yet flexible, ready to lash out like a whip at the very slightest provocation. Rika understood the posture well; it was practically a mirror-image of her own. Rika had a bit of a funny idea that after all the years of nonviolence she was going to kick back off by first fighting her clone. After three years would she still be able to match the efficiency she had once shown? Rika looked over to Hahn lying unconscious and bleeding on the floor. For his sake she had better hope so.

Mieus was waiting for her to move. Killing her in one fell swoop wouldn't be nearly as fun as letting her struggle first. She watched the woman in the long dress try to assume her own battle stance but it was difficult with the clothing she had chosen to wear. The numan girl paused, then stood straight again and sighed. "What is it?" Mieus asked, raising an eyebrow. She didn't have the time for foolish hesitation.

"I can't fight like this…" Rika complained as she berated herself for her poor choice of clothing. She had never intended on following Chaz back to Zelan during the beginning of the day, and when she had finally changed her mind there had not been enough time to change her clothing too. Just a pair of pants or shorts would have made a world of difference. She reached around behind herself to tug at the zipper of her dress. With the claws equipped it made things rather difficult. "Can you help me out here?" She asked Mieus with a grimace as she tried to get the zipper undone.

"What?" Mieus would never have that problem with garment restriction. Her tight red bodysuit had been specifically designed to allow her the maximum range of motion and comfort. Frankly she was surprised that Rika had asked such a request of her. What was even more surprising was that she found herself retracting her claws for the time being and moving to Rika's side to offer her some help.

She reasoned logically that she would not enjoy the combat as much if her enemy was handicapped in any way. Mieus checked the zipper that Rika was attempting to undo. It was caught upon a tiny crease of pink fabric. It felt very soft. "I hope that layan scum have enough decency to wear undergarments beneath their clothing." Mieus said as she worked dexterously to remove the catch. The only venom in her statement came from her choice of words; the rest was clean.

Rika was extremely tense. If Mieus wanted to attack her then she had a good clear shot to do it. However, Rika didn't think that Mieus would attack her, at least not right now. It was just a feeling she had that Siren's servants held more honor than they thought they did. The zipper came free and Mieus stepped back as Rika wriggled out of her dress, freeing herself up for unrestricted combat.

She was wearing a set of black brassiere and panties to protect her modesty. It took a few seconds for the numan girl to get her claws through the sleeves of her dress but they went through eventually, then she toed the discarded piece of garment out of the way and to the side. Rika smiled and blushed at the same time. Ooooh it was cold on Zelan, she had almost forgotten about it until now.

Mieus walked back to where she had previously stood. "Are you ready to fight now, my dear?" She asked sweetly as she moved.

"I'm ready." Rika said, waiting just as Mieus had waited.

Briefly Rika was thinking she was glad that Hahn wasn't awake to see her right now, but at the very moment Rika's thoughts wandered slightly Mieus attacked. The change in her attention was apparent in her breathing, her heart rate, and a dozen smaller manners that were relatively apparent to Mieus' sensors. She turned suddenly and made herself into a blur, ricocheting off the wall and lunging straight for Rika's throat.

It was a little too quick for what she was used to. Rika had never been on the receiving end of such an attack before, nevertheless the direction of the attack was important; it dictated what side of the body to defend. Mieus slammed against Rika's crossed claws and while she couldn't cut into her enemy the blunt force was more than enough to hurt. Both girls grunted and Rika was slammed against the opposing wall, pushed further into defense.

Against that flat surface Rika got a leg up and kneed Mieus hard in the stomach while bracing her down with a hand upon her shoulder. The android's body was cold from Hahn's wat attack but it was also soft, easy to dig her knee into. Mieus gasped but got her arm underneath Rika's raised leg, supporting her thigh and then using the leverage to hurl the girl over her shoulder. Mieus was strong; she had more than enough strength to perform the maneuver one-armed.

She hit the ground on her hands and absorbed all the shock in her arms, curling her body and rolling harmlessly away. Mieus turned around with a serious frown on her face, but inwardly she was enjoying it quite a bit. She had never fought anybody who had actually _trained_ for combat before. Well, not seriously at least. They had all been scared cowards who had tried to run away. They never got very far.

Rika rose and raised her claws again. Together they clashed, metal blades scraping against metal blades. They locked together perfectly like a jigsaw puzzle and the entire battle became a match of brute physical strength. Her muscles burned and she squared her jaw bravely but it seemed like Mieus was only toying with her, for she appeared unconcerned. Under normal circumstances Zelan's light atmosphere would not have bothered Rika in the slightest, but under such stresses she began to find the air terribly lacking.

Her breathing became quick and shallow. Her chest heaved with the effort. If she jumped up to hyperventilation then Mieus would certainly win and she could kiss living goodbye. The lightheaded feeling continued to increase, but when Mieus spoke again it grounded her, just a little. "Do you know what happened to the two layan friends who were following you? Surely you are curious." She purred. She had something in mind and it was most definitely poisonous.

Yes, she really _was_ curious. Why had only Hahn followed her and not Chaz and Raja? Rika feared that Mieus knew something she didn't. She shoved forward a bit like a bucking deer, trying to break the lock. It didn't work but Rika was happy to see that Mieus had taken a step back towards the wall. "W-what do you mean?" She grunted as she looked into the android girl's cold blue eyes.

"What I mean is…" Mieus shoved forward again and Rika couldn't stop her this time, her arms just completely gave out on her. It was then that Rika realized she wasn't wearing a single plate of armor, so that even the slightest scratch could wound her horribly. Mieus' fist connected with her ribs with only a fraction of the strength that it was capable of. Mieus whispered sensually in Rika's ear; "They've been stopped. Killed. Slashed to ribbons. My dear sweet partner has probably destroyed them by now."

The pain she felt was dull and blunt, barely acute. Rika looked down. Mieus had retracted her claws and had punched her in the stomach with all the force of her gloved fist. She could have easily skewered her liver had she left her claws out but she hadn't, instead toying with Rika like a cat toys with a mouse. She wanted this battle to last, to entertain her, to _satisfy_ her. A thought occurred to Rika as she coughed and choked on the punch. What if she was distracting her while the other android got down to the task of murdering Chaz?

Well, she could not allow that. It couldn't be true; Chaz was the strongest person she knew. Nobody could kill him so simply, so easily. Rika drew on her strengths and clipped Mieus under the chin with her claws, then slid to the side to avoid the android's fist and kicked her strongly with a sweeping leg. "I doubt it. Chaz has fought enemies far stronger than your wren type ever could be. He has probably destroyed _him_ by now, reduced him to a pile of scrap metal."

The numan smiled when Mieus went reeling from the forceful kick, striking the side of the wall with her shoulder. Mieus glowered at her from where she had fallen. Rika had said something to really offend the girl. Perhaps she wasn't as confident with her partner as Rika was with Chaz. She must have a weakness. Everyone did. Rika just had to pin it down and find it, and she was finally getting somewhere now.

The android girl was only vulnerable for a few hasty moments. Rika's confident words caused Mieus to let doubt enter her mind. She did not know anything about the partner of her current opponent and his toughness in battle, but she _was_ quite aware of Warren's mental fragility. He was kind and sweet and still recovering from his torture, if any of the layans hurt or upset him too much, well, Mieus would turn her weakness into a fount of furious strength.

She rose and regarded Rika with narrowed, focussed eyes. "You lie. You fleshbags are nothing but weak." Raising a hand Mieus clicked open the catch which kept her claws sheathed and they slid out in their smooth silky glory. No more toying, no more games. Rika had insulted her and what was hers and now she needed to pay. Smiling a carnivorous smile Mieus dove forward in a flash. "Let's open you up for all to see!" She screamed.

It wasn't just an empty threat. Rika could easily see that Mieus wanted nothing more than to perform a premortem autopsy upon her while she was still standing. Rika thought fast, trying to make every slice of her second count. What was Mieus' physical weakness? No, scratch that, what was an android's physical weakness in general?

She thought back to all the times she had seen Wren or Demi fall in battle to numerous things. It had mostly been through electrical surplus, corrosion, or a physical impact. Even _Wren_ would become unconscious if he sustained a head injury serious enough. Something about sensory equipment being in direct connection to the core and going into emergency hibernation to protect said core. She didn't remember very well.

Anyway, there was no time to argue or second-guess herself, no time for anything but a single defensive maneuver. In the end Rika needn't to have thought at all; her perfectly-trained body performed all the thinking and the movement for her. She twisted and pivoted on her heel as Mieus darted towards her, side-stepping her opponent but extending a hand out to catch the other girl as she flew by. Rika grabbed Mieus by the shoulder and swiveled again to work her way behind her, frankly surprised at her own display of astonishing speed. She was certain she must have lost it by now.

Fleshbag or not, there was no possible way an android could match a numan's grace and agility. Rika held Mieus gently but firmly and would not let her stop, shoving forward with her own momentum and strength when the red-haired girl tried to apply resistance and stop. With a grunt she slammed Mieus headfirst into the opposing wall, grabbing a fistful of the girl's hair and bracing the back of her head for the rough impact. Rika herself used Mieus as a cushion and bumped against her, but she was unharmed. All the shock was absorbed straight into Mieus' body.

When Rika pulled away Mieus didn't make a noise, or if she _had_ made a noise it was one Rika was not able to hear. She merely slumped to the ground, close to Hahn who was lying a few feet away. Her eyes had slid closed into emergency hibernation. Good, it had worked. Rika sighed in relief, yet still she felt kind of sorry for the poor, poor girl.

Now she was completely alone. The halls of Zelan were silent and she felt totally exposed standing there in her underclothes, like some embarrassing dream. Rubbing her arms in short motions Rika dropped to her knees to get a closer look at Hahn. His bleeding had stopped and his breathing was steady and regular, as if he were asleep. Something seemed very wrong with his mouth though, Rika suspected that his lower jaw may have been broken.

With her body warming down from the adrenaline and the fight Rika was becoming cold, just so cold. She shivered then looked for her discarded clothes. She took her claws off momentarily to slip the dress back on, the zipper sliding up quickly and easily with a pair of _proper_ hands to coax it with. Afterwards the claws came back on for the protection that they gave. The single extra layer of clothing made the whole world of difference.

Rika was beginning to contemplate trying to wake up Hahn and treat him for his injuries, while also wondering exactly how long Mieus would stay unconscious for when a third thought swept back into her mind. A cold chill shivered down her limbs, all the way to her fingertips and toes despite the warm clothes. Chaz. While worrying about Hahn and Mieus Rika had totally forgotten about Chaz. He was behind her down the hallway, fighting against Mieus' partner with Raja by his side.

She bit her lip lightly as she remembered Mieus' teasing words. No, Chaz would never lose a fight against somebody so insignificant. It was absurd, but still…

Rika had to go check on him. Not because she doubted him, but for her own sake and peace of mind.

Reassuringly she stroked the unconscious Hahn gently across the cheek. She'd come back for him soon, way before Mieus had a chance to wake up again. She'd bring Raja up here and the old bishop would be able to help.

"I'll be back Hahn, I promise. Hang in there." Rika whispered as she rose up to her full height, then ran back the way she had came down the corridor. There was a sense of urgency in her pace that she outwardly did not wish to acknowledge or show.

Chaz would be okay.

He had to be.

†††

The explosive beginning to Chaz's fight against Warren had suddenly come to a very abrupt halt. The youth was surprised and a little bewildered at what had just happened. He was even _more_ confused as to why Warren had not retaliated yet. Chaz had raised his sword and had lunged at the android with a pretty cool battle cry, sweeping the blade down to slice through where the android's collarbone should have been were he palman.

At least, that was what _should _have happened. Instead, halfway through the sweep and when Chaz's concentration was at its peak he felt a sudden resistance slam against the blade and cease momentum, stopping him immediately in his tracks. When he tried to pull his sword away he couldn't do that either; he was trapped. The hunter glanced up at his opponent. Warren had seen the sweep coming from a mile away and he had just simply grabbed it out of midair, holding it in his grasp so Chaz could not pull away.

Chaz pulled again and still nothing, Warren was not prepared to let go until he was good and ready. He looked at the boy, then then his guardian sword, then the boy again. Obviously the weapon was superbly made and powerful, but the driving force behind it was, how do you say… weak? In any case Warren was quite used to making the second strike; he rarely started fights. "Um, lad?" He said to Chaz with a gentle apologetic smile. "I am very sorry, but your swing is just too slow."

He let go of the hunter's blade and shoved forward in one smooth motion, pushing Chaz back onto his heels, then thrust out with his own sword that he carried in his other hand. Chaz gasped and swept his newly freed weapon to the side to block Warren's sword strike, the two blades clashing and generating sparks. His burned shoulder throbbed at the motion but he ignored it, continuing onward bravely. The deflection worked, Warren's attack was easily knocked away.

"My teacher used to say the very same… thing!" Chaz grunted as he took a step to the right and thrust out on his own, nicking Warren in the upper arm. The android had not been able to block that in time, flinching away from the stab instead. It turned the deep stab into nothing more than a scratch upon armor. At least it was a hit, and Chaz found confidence with that. He smiled. That very first block was a fluke, as Warren had been _expecting _that strike. He wouldn't be able to defend himself like that again.

The next three or four sword strikes made by Warren each was parried almost effortlessly by Chaz and his great skill. This was almost too easy; it was as if Warren was not even trying. The android had absolutely _no_ proficiency with the sword whatsoever, he was swinging it about clumsily as if it were a club or some other blunt object. As Warren had said, he was only an amateur. The only thing he had going for him was his strength.

"You are a friend of lieutenant colonel Forren, aren't you?" Warren asked politely as he attempted to slice Chaz into pieces with the aid of his sword. It was nice to know that Forren still had friends in this day and age, even though it seemed like he had discarded his emotions. The android winced as Chaz ducked down low, evading a sword strike and plunging his weapon into Warren's side.

The blade had not hit his core, but it had come quite close. Chaz hoped that it hurt. By the way that Warren seemed to have frozen implied that it hurt quite a bit, that is, if this android was capable of experiencing pain at all. "I don't know who you're talking about really, but if you're referring to Wren then that's right." Chaz replied as he ripped the sword savagely out of his enemy.

"That's… ugh, good then…" Warren gasped as the blade was yanked out of his body. It hadn't hit anything vital. He could continue. If Forren really _was_ this lad's friend then he needed to be careful. Forren had a bit of a habit which caused him to kill close friends on uncommon occasions. He wondered if this boy knew what a jerk his friend had once been. As Warren thought this he took a step back and feinted, moving unexpectedly to the left.

The air was chill and incredibly thin. It messed with Chaz Ashley's head. When Warren made a pass to move right but then bluffed and headed left it confused Chaz and made him pause to gather his bearings again. Warren cracked him over the back of the head with the butt of his sword and shoved him forward when the hunter stumbled from the blow. Like that, it would be remarkably easy to simply plunge his antique sword right into Chaz's back.

But he did not do that. Chaz noticed it too, but instead of feeling relieved he actually felt indignant. Warren was not even _trying _to fight seriously, he was just dicking around and letting Chaz pretend he was getting somewhere. Maybe he was simply unable to perform the killing blow. Regardless, it irritated him. "What's the matter?" He coughed as the back of his head stung like a bitch. "Aren't you programmed to kill me?"

"I'm sorry." Warren said behind Chaz, and damned if he didn't sound sincere about it. He hadn't killed anybody up close for a very long time, he felt he had to work his way up to it. No… that wasn't right. It was more like he didn't want to do it, but in the name of his master he would. If he took somebody else's life it would prove that he truly _was_ alive. The android drew conviction from that. "I promise I'll try harder this time."

And then it was like the atmosphere changed, or _something_ changed, for Chaz felt it as well; the hairs on his neck prickling uncomfortably. He had his back to Warren and he needed to fix that quickly, so he spun around. The android wasn't invincible and Chaz had already proven that he could punch a hole in him if he struck a part that was not heavily protected by armor. If he could just find the right place to stab maybe he could put Warren down for the count.

But when Chaz turned Warren was all at once far too close to him, his free hand shooting out and clamping down hard upon the boy's neck. Chaz choked at the sudden violent pressure and there was a heavy crash as Warren slammed the hunter mercilessly against the opposing wall. Chaz's feet dangled almost a foot off the ground, held up solely through the strength of his enemy. He gasped, he could not breathe, and not enough air was getting through to his lungs.

The hunter's hand flew up to push and grapple with Warren's arm, which may have been made of stone for all the give it made. Chaz's sword-arm trembled stiffly by his side. He could not drop his weapon. It would be all over if he dropped his weapon, but if he did not do something soon about the hand bolted down over his throat and squeezing the very life out of him he was gone. Warren looked serious, as if he were concentrating hard on the task at hand. "Is this better?" He asked politely.

Chaz gurgled as a response. It was nearly impossible to speak as he was now. Color was draining out of his vision, making the world seem like it was painted in blacks and whites. A great pressure was building up in his chest, growing and expanding like a child's balloon. His fingers twitched on Warren's forearm, weakly trying to push the android away.

"I don't want to see you suffer. I can snap your neck if you want and you will not have to go through the process of asphyxiation. It's a very painful way to die. If you want to stay like this and suffocate though, well, I'm sure I'll get over the experience. Tap me on the arm if you can't take it anymore. I'll make the pain stop." He said kindly. Chaz was making the most pitiful of faces as he struggled to breathe. It made Warren feel terrible because he was the one doing this. He wanted to get it over with.

From Chaz's position it actually was a pretty tempting offer. He was in a state of horrible panicky desperation, his face turning various shades of red, then grey, then blue. His eyes rolled as he thought he just might black out and die before he had the chance to deliver his answer. He looked down at Warren while his vision went in and out of blurring. The android actually seemed to be in some minor distress himself. How odd.

"Well? Answer me. You don't want to die like this." Warren pressed with anxiety. Chaz's sword-arm finally went limp and he dropped his weapon. His fingers were loose and the boy's struggles were weakening. Warren relaxed his hold a little, not enough to save him, but it allowed a small sigh to twist its way up out of the hunter's throat. "Hey, come on, lad! Stop it!"

Chaz raised his hand from where it had been resting on Warren's arm. It looked like he was going to consent to having his neck broken, which to Warren would have turned this from a murder into a simple assisted suicide. He could handle that gladly. But no, instead of a tap Chaz lowered his arm and gently pressed the palm of his hand flat against the android's armored chest. He smiled through clenched teeth.

"… na… thu…" He managed to choke out in the wheezy voice of an old man.

Warren was blown back by a concentrated beam of light, a veritable laser. He cried out in pain and Chaz gasped in powerful mind-blowing relief as the pressure was broken from his throat and he could breathe again. It felt like his body had gone totally numb, he didn't even feel it as he dropped to his hands and knees on the floor, gasping and coughing wildly. His heart was beating so fast it might as well have been vibrating. Air! Sweet, beautiful air!

The android clattered to the floor, smoking and noticeably wounded. The hunter's technique had melted his chest armor down to the final layer, only an inch or two further and Chaz would have reached his core. Such a powerful attack coming from such a small and fragile boy, Warren had simply not been expecting it. He lay there on the floor perfectly still, his systems already undertaking minute procedures to repair his damaged body. He was conscious but he would not move until it was safe.

For some minutes neither opponent moved from where they lay, too busy occupied with themselves. After a while Chaz felt somewhat even again, his breathing semi-normal, and Warren had completed the necessary repairs to stand and move again. When Chaz could breathe and Warren could move somebody started to laugh, soft, quiet, amused laughter. They rose to their feet, weapon in hand, and then they were both laughing.

"I guess neither of us were being very honest with the other." Warren said as he started to remove the damaged and useless pieces of his own armor, the melted and burning hot pieces dropping to the ground. He smiled, slightly relieved that Chaz had managed to break free. "You are full of surprises."

"And you're pretty strong." Chaz replied as he stilled his coughs and rubbed the raw red marks in the shape of fingerprints on his neck. They would turn into bruises soon. Well, he had expected a tough battle upon Zelan. It was good to know that he hadn't been disappointed. "I'm not going to fool around this time either. I have to get this over with and make sure Rika is okay."

"What's your name?"

"Chaz Ashley. Yours?"

"Warren McCulloch."

"It's harder to kill somebody when you know their name."

"I know."

For five seconds there was silence and the two swordsmen just looked at one another. Then, as if somebody had rung a bell somewhere initiating the fight they each lunged for one another exactly at the same time. Blades clashed, grating against one another and then slid away, one further towards its foe. Chaz Ashley drew blood, but after the pain of the almost strangulation it barely felt like anything at all. "Why are you doing this anyway?" Chaz shouted as he stepped back and wiped the fresh blood from his face.

"Because…" Warren yelled back just as heatedly as the hunter jumped almost impossibly high and attempted a crushing sword strike from the air. He avoided it creatively by reaching up and snagging Chaz by the ankle, then swinging him about and hurling the boy directly into the wall. The hunter performed a trick that he had seen Rika attempt numerous times in the past, twisting his body and pretending that the wall was the floor, landing gracefully and then pushing off again within another half second.

"…I will never…" When Chaz came back towards him Warren thrust out with his antique blade and hoped that he could actually _impale _in the boy in one move, which would finish the battle quick smart. Unfortunately Chaz saw the stab and parried in time, but that also rendered his big dive practically meaningless.

"…Let you get…" He moved to the left, Chaz moved to the right, and then together their blades clashed again. A hairline crack appeared down Warren's sword from the last impact, practically unnoticeable. At least, the two fighters did not notice it at the time. Chaz slashed horizontally, Warren leaned out of the way. Warren went for Chaz's legs and tried to immobilize him, but the hunter artfully leapt away. Finally there was another pause, Chaz panting and bleeding from various minor cuts and Warren moderately damaged. Cold green eyes met cold grey eyes.

"…_In Siren's way_!"

Blades impacted against one another for the very last time. Warren swung down, Chaz swung up. It was all a matter of simple physics. Chaz was physically weak when compared to the high-quality strength of his guardian sword, while Warren's mechanical powerhouse of strength far outweighed his dinky little antique weapon. One could easily predict the outcome before it happened. The guardian sword defended Chaz bravely but the weak force crushed the hunter to the ground, and Warren's sword could not withstand the unbelievable force the android placed upon it. It shattered upon impact, breaking into three-dozen glittering shards.

Chaz and Warren were peppered with shrapnel. The hunter blinked on the ground, wondering what had happened while Warren stared dumbly at the broken hilt in his hand. "Oh no!" He cried in a worried surprised voice, a far shot from the brutal war cry he had displayed only moments earlier. "You broke it! The doctor's sword! That was his family's heirloom!"

As Chaz pulled himself back up to his feet all of a sudden the android looked like he was getting close to tears. That sword had been just about the last thing he had left from his old friend. "Who cares? It's just a sword. You weren't even very good with it anyway." He groaned, feeling his cuts and bruises ache.

Warren glared. He dropped the hilt of the broken weapon. "You know, maybe I don't really like you so much after all." He said softly, moving into an unknown battle stance that Chaz had never really seen before. It was utilized to emphasize no weapon, only his bare hands.

The youth smiled. He felt that he was winning. He had weakened the android's armor and had disarmed him of his weapon, now all that was left to be done was to break him once and for all. Chaz's smile became cocky. "Whoever it was that sword once belonged to, they're dead now. I doubt they'd care anymore if it broke. All of them, they're dead. I don't know exactly who the hell you are or where you came from, but if you threaten my friends' safety then I'll destroy you."

"I can see where you're coming from. If I were in your position I'd feel the same way. There is no more time for indulging you, lad. You will be dead in two minutes from this moment." Warren informed him efficiently then he slowly closed his eyes, concentrating and activating a dusty protocol from the past. In an overly monotone, bland voice he said; "Activating battle system. Combat mode initialized. Capped at one hundred and twenty seconds."

This was that separated a warrior wren from a silent wren, or a fortress wren. Standard warren models geared for general infantry purposes possessed a separate combat mode, an energy-burning heightened sense of being which was just as taxing for the individual invoking it as the benefit involved. Combat mode could only be sustained for five minutes at a time, no more than three times per day. Use it too often and a unit would simply collapse; a light bulb burning out. Mother Brain had given this line of her children five minutes and no more, but even four minutes was considerably draining and dangerous.

Warren himself during the war had never dared anything further than three minutes and forty seconds. _Those_ had been an electrically metabolic nightmare. It would have severely damaged him permanently had a field mechanic not been a part of his brigade. He was sufficiently healthy right now, given the circumstances, so he gave in to the racial urge to deal some damage and moved, his target the young Chaz Ashley.

One moment he was there, the next he was gone. That was some pretty fast movement. Wait… Warren hadn't been in combat mode, even from the start? Chaz's eyebrows knitted together briefly. Fine. Whatever. He'd show his enemy the full extent of his own powers, too.

Chaz already had his sword out, but Warren had recorded the way and manners of which he had wielded it and its conventional use was no longer a threat to him. As a doctor the android made the perfect hand-to-hand combat fighter; he already knew all the weak spots on the palman body, exactly where to add pressure, exactly what to break. Zelan had slowed, Chaz had slowed, absolutely everything except for himself. A hundred and fifteen seconds left. Move. Move now.

Somebody grabbed Chaz's sword arm by the wrist and clamped down viciously hard, then twisted it three hundred degrees; almost a full rotation. The bones in Chaz Ashley's forearm and wrist snapped like dry twigs. He screamed in surprise and acute pain, his fingers going slack on reflex.

He dropped his sword, but he was not that far-gone just yet. Chaz had earned his hunter's license after all along with every skill that came with it. Warren had materialized by his side, slightly behind him, holding his broken wrist up like a trophy of some sort. The hunter's free hand swiped at his knife belt briefly and Chaz jammed the full length of his knife right into the android's arm, burying it in as deep as it could go.

Warren didn't seem to notice as the blade punched into the tough metallic muscles beneath his armor. He sharply heard the sound of Chaz's main weapon clattering upon the tiles of the space station. Disarmament? Check. Now to make sure this young lad never would pick up a weapon in this hand ever again, in self defense or otherwise. Warren performed calculations with lightning-quick speed, even as he moved to act out the very algorithm. Here, there and… there, yes, each area of the boy's arm lit up as targets in the android's vision.

He spun the young warrior around as if they were in the middle of a dance, twisting Chaz's arm behind himself and then using the unnatural angle to apply tremendous pressure, helping it along with the crushing strength in his arms and hands. Chaz's eyes flew open wide and all the colour was sucked from his face as he felt the second snap, his radius and ulna collapsing like a wishbone. This time he didn't scream, he just opened and closed his mouth a few times in the perfect impression of a fish. It hurt too much to make a single sound.

"Your upper arm next." Warren seemed to slur in what was a more artificial voice than usual, as if steadily getting drunk on his own power or if his lingual unit was being taxed to give his battle system more power. He pushed Chaz forward, repositioning the hunter as if he were a chiropractor, supporting Chaz's upper arm with a hand along the underside and placing his other hand just above the elbow. Chaz was still trembling and trying to deal with the first and second breaks; he could do nothing else. The only reason he was still standing up at all was because Warren was supporting him.

He mangled the humerus easily, offering one strong, sharp push which cracked the bone in two. Warren had removed all stability from Chaz's sword arm in just under twenty seconds, breaking it until it resembled a limp, bruised noodle. He let go and the hunter quietly folded in on himself, falling to his knees and practically pressing his chest against his legs, shaking and making weak 'aah'ing sounds that were between a whimper and a moan.

Warren pried out the short knife that had somehow gotten into his arm and tossed it haphazardly over his shoulder, looking at his handiwork. He could see the youngster's _bone_ jutting out of the wound and the rip in his bodysuit that the break had caused. It was welling up with blood while the area around it was rapidly growing dark. A gruesome sight, but as a veteran medical officer he had seen much worse.

He reached down and pulled Chaz to his feet by his hair. The boy blinked almost vacantly at him, but then he glared murderously and spat in Warren's face. "You were just pretending to be a swordsman. It was all an act. You made me think you were an idiot." He accused rather weakly himself, but still indignant.

The spit oozed down the wren-type's cheek for a moment before he wiped it away with the back of a hand. He looked at it in a detached sort of way, then in proper response he balled his hand into a fist and propelled it straight into Chaz's stomach, mashing the hunter's armor into his own body and breaking a good handful of his ribs. "Please don't do that again. It's not very nice of you." He said calmly.

Chaz hacked up blood in one great choke, the fragments of his snapped ribs clawing into his insides. Suddenly everything tasted like blood. Warren set him back down onto his feet but miraculously he did not fall over, leaning against the surface of the wall. Oh god, oh Great Light, he had been hurt _so_ badly, his arm felt like a bag of broken glass. It didn't even feel like an arm anymore. Was this it? Was he going to die here on this space station years after he had passed his final test, killed by some _nobody_ he had never ever heard of?

No! It could not happen! He'd never let it! Chaz gasped and panted desperately as he smiled, trying to ignore the blinding pain. Blood dribbled from his mouth and down his throat as he struggled to hold the sword he was gripping in his _other_ hand. When he had fallen the first thing he had grabbed was his guardian blade; he'd been taught to always keep his weapon by his side. "Hey, you…" He coughed to the warren watching him suffer with both interest and pity.

"What is it?" Warren asked, his combat mode reaching the one minute point and already experiencing some mild euphoric discomfort. He wasn't as new as he used to be, he needed to stop soon, but the thing was that he didn't want to. He never really wanted to.

Chaz thought that if he were going to die he might as well do it with some style. Maybe it was a small part of Rune rubbing off on him. He called forth one final burst of strength.

"I have _two_ arms, you know…"

Uttering a roar mixed with a cry Chaz plunged his sword into the junction between Warren's shoulder and chest. He favored his right arm in battle but that arm had been cruelly crippled, so he used his left. It went in rather smoothly, all things considering. Chaz's hand slipped from the hilt of the sword and slumped down weakly. That was it; he could do no more. If he didn't defeat Warren using that attack or if Raja didn't wake up in time then he was in defeat.

Warren staggered back, the intruding weapon disrupting the flow of electricity to the limb. It had gone dead, but that was only temporary. This layan boy, Warren had never fought anybody like him before, and he _liked_ the pain that his damages were delivering to him, it meant that he really _was_ here and alive to experience them. He quirked a smile and startled to chuckle. It was nice and friendly laughter, even when he half-groaned as he slid the intruding weapon slowly out of his body.

The blade was clean as there was not a single drop of blood in Warren's body. He had broken Chaz's bones but that really wasn't enough; wounds like that could heal over time. In the off-chance that Chaz escaped Warren didn't want to have to fight him ever again. As he was processing this Chaz worked himself a miracle and carefully rocked himself off the wall he was leaning against, then slumped towards the android in a desperate attempt to reclaim his sword. He had left faint traces of blood smeared against the wall.

The battle came to a bitter, violent end. Warren mimicked Chaz's last sword strike and thrust the stolen weapon straight through the hunter's body, pinning Chaz against the wall like a rare butterfly. Chaz Ashley's tired and wounded body went still, weak, impaled upon his own sword. It went straight through his shoulder and out the other side, the tip of the sword digging an inch or two into the metal surface behind him. "You… you…" He breathed, pain concentrated in every word.

Compared to the other wounds there was not a lot of blood. The blade was like a plug, keeping all of the blood inside. Warren could hardly believe he had just done that, wounding the boy so critically, yet still it had not been a fatal attack. The layan would still live as long as he didn't die of massive blood loss. He had sliced through Chaz's ligaments and nerves, isolating the arm from the rest of his body. It was done. If he survived Chaz would be a cripple for the rest of his life.

Warren reached out and reassuringly braced the broken boy against his palm. He was horrified with himself and the terrible crime he had committed, but he needed to finish him off and get things done. Leaving the youth in such horrific pain was just _too_ cruel. "Steady on, my friend. It will all be okay. It won't hurt for much longer. The next strike is destined for your heart. I am so sorry about this…" Ten seconds of combat mode left. He needed to be quick.

He pulled the instantly bloody sword out of the hunter's body carefully, slowly twisting his wrist in the process. Chaz moaned low as his wound was further mutilated, the blade screwdrivering the flesh as it came out. Blood poured freely and soaked his clothing, armor and the bandage which seemed nothing more than a tiny burn now; utterly insignificant. Chaz slid down onto his legs, painting the wall as he went. There was a hole in his shoulder. There was a goddamned _hole_ in his shoulder.

The tears that had flown freely down his cheeks from the pain changed quality and became emotional. It was time for him to die, he could already see the bastard wren-type raising his sword for the final plunge. Nobody was coming to rescue him. Nobody. Not even…

"Rika…" Chaz whimpered softly as he closed his eyes, giving in.

Warren raised the sword up high, steeling himself, then…

Zelan was filled with a high-pitched scream of pain and agony, of intense anger and frustration, then became quiet. Unbearable silence filled the station once more.

Chaz did not move anymore, he was still and he felt no more pain. His head had drooped down to his chest and his blood continued to flow, utterly and completely defeated. Lost… but still alive.

The android hadn't struck him. He had _meant_ to, of course, but that scream had been as good as an 'off' switch for him, freezing him stock still. Chaz couldn't have heard that scream, _no_ layan or palman could. Only androids, only his own kind. Like a silent dog whistle Warren was immediately riled and at attention. He dropped his stolen weapon and paid it no more heed.

"Mieus…" He said out loud, powering down and exiting combat mode. His nervousness and revulsion came back at full force, along with his anxiety. He turned to look down the corridor where he knew his partner would be. Her signal had dropped out immediately after that scream and now only his master Siren and Forren were online. She hadn't- Those layans didn't- … Why the hell wasn't he there protecting her?

"_Mieus_!" Warren shouted, turning tail and running, leaving Chaz there to bleed to death on his own. At least the boy wasn't conscious to experience his own imminent death.

Blood dripped from his wounds and breaks, rolling onto the floor, slowly growing cold.

No more pain.

†††

It didn't take long for Rika to backtrack to where she needed to be. She was hurrying quite fast though and worrying so much about her fiance that when Warren came running up the corridor to tend to his own devices they almost slammed right into one another.

They stood there, looking at each other, one breathing hard and the other rather damaged. Upon this contact they knew they had to fight for their master and to protect their friends, but nobody moved or initiated any conflict. Rika had to get to Chaz and Warren needed to reach Mieus. There simply wasn't enough time for a battle while they both worried. To waste those precious seconds would be ludicrous.

No words were exchanged and it happened almost simultaneously, as if they already knew exactly what the other was thinking. Warren moved aside to let the girl pass and meet her fallen love while Rika darted forward at the very same moment, giving Warren clear passage to run and reach Mieus. A couple of seconds later the moment was lost and the android and numan girl had gone their separate ways.

At least, if only for a few seconds, both sides had decided to just forget about it and let go. Some things were more important than hatred and intolerance.


	21. Suture

When Rika found Chaz he was already on his way to being half dead. The entire area of that corridor had become a genuine crime scene, visible dents in the wall, shards of a broken weapon on the floor, blood just about everywhere, and the required dying body just off to the side. Raja was also in his own designated spot, completely out of touch with the world. Pieces of metal clinked under her shoes when Rika entered this environment as if in a dream.

It made her battle with Mieus seem no more deadly than a hair-pulling contest. The moment her eyes fell upon Chaz Rika offered a little squeak and ran to him desperately, skidding to her knees on the floor. His injuries were not just bad, they were far worse than that; they were grotesque and cruel. He was unconscious, thank the light, but there was blood simply _pouring_ out of his shoulder and his arm was twisted and set to such a degree as to suggest multiple fractures. _Bone_ jutted from one of the breaks in his arm. Rika felt her last meal try to rise at the sight.

"Oh gods Chaz, you're bleeding…" She cried softly as she tried vainly to staunch his blood loss. She didn't have anything at all to do it with save her hands, but that was hardly practical and only a short-term solution. She looked at the youth's face drooped down peacefully onto his armored chest, slightly askew. There was hardly any colour or pigment left in it, making Chaz three or four shades paler than he usually was, accentuating the sudden dark circles under his eyes. If he ran out of blood then he was dead.

She had to use something to apply proper pressure to the wound. Rika removed her bloody hands from Chaz for a moment and tore a great swatch of cloth from her long pink dress, ruining the garment forever but creating a good long length of firm bandage. She pressed it hard against the wound and began to wrap it around his shoulder tightly enough to nearly cut off the circulation, which was exactly what she wanted.

The fact that Chaz had not awoken during the tampering of his injuries was a very bad sign. She didn't want him to wake up and experience the incredible pain ready and waiting for him here, but she was absolutely desperate to have him look at her, to speak to her, to have him acknowledge her presence. Rika wanted him to know that she was right there with him, trying to help.

She attempted to bring him around or at least lessen his injuries somewhat with a nares technique. Generally techniques like those could not heal real physical wounds, not like some priestly or esperine skills could, but it allowed those touched by the technique some temporary strength and fortification. It was enough to keep a person going while wounded just enough until the danger was dealt with, then proper medical treatment could be administered. It was Rika's hope that her nares would be enough to awaken the boy and paint a little more colour back into his cheeks.

Against all odds Chaz stirred. His eyelids fluttered softly and then his brow furrowed, the young palman letting out a low groan. Pale, washed-out green eyes looked up at Rika in general incomprehension, a look which made the girl's heart want to break. There was such pain in those eyes, she could hardly begin to imagine how he felt. He closed them again and whimpered, trying hard to swallow down the pain. It felt worse than when he had first blacked out, switching from an acute to a dull, draining agony. "Rika…" He sobbed pitifully.

"I'm here! I'm right here, Chaz!" She exclaimed back to him, taking him by the hand that was not yet mangled. Even that seemed to hurt him a bit though, as the boy winced. Maybe it was from the effort of having to breathe in around a chest full of broken ribs. It wasn't enough, Rika wanted to throw her arms around him and hug her love but she was too afraid of hurting him even more.

"Rika…" Chaz repeated and Rika realised that her fiancé didn't even know she was there. It was as if the pain had blinded him even though he could still see. Okay, it was not time to panic. More than ever it was time to keep a level head and remain perfectly calm, even though Chaz was dying, even though her every action could mean her loved one's life or death. It was an awful lot of pressure for just one girl to handle, but Rika was very resourceful. She wiped away her tears then paused, hesitantly brushing Chaz's own tears gently off his face.

First she assessed his injuries properly. His wounds were localized in his sword arm, his arm snapped in three different places and horribly bruised. She stripped him of his armor plating and found that many of his ribs had been broken as well. The wound that was killing him, however, _that_ was the terrible part. He was bleeding all over the place and already her makeshift bandage was soaking through. It wouldn't hold out for much longer.

Chaz's only hope was for her to wake up Raja. Rika moved over to him and grabbed the dezorian bishop by the front of his robes, hauling him up into a sitting position and then leaning him against the wall. She tapped him on the cheek, shook him lightly, but when no response was established she tapped and shook him substantially harder. Raja was in the deepest sleep she had ever seen, not even a nares on his battered body would bring him around.

In the end the only thing she could do was let Raja droop back onto his spot against the wall and rule him out to help. The one time that his priestly abilities could have made the world of difference and he was unable to lend a hand! Fresh tears of desperate frustration prickled anew. She didn't know what to do. She had already done all she could and it was nowhere near good enough!

"Raja, please! You have to wake up! You have to save Chaz!" Rika shouted then against her better judgement she slapped him. It wasn't a hard slap, it was just very brisk, and it should have been enough to bring her elderly friend around. It wasn't. There was no use.

"Hello? E-Excuse me?"

Rika let go of Raja and glanced up when somebody with an unfamiliar voice spoke to her. It wasn't Raja, it wasn't Chaz, and it certainly wasn't anybody else she knew on this space station either.

It was the golden android she had run into only a few minutes earlier up along the corridor. The numan girl didn't know what to say to him because they were supposed to be enemies, but fortunately the last thing the android wanted to do was fight, judging by the look on his face. He was holding a girl in his arms. Mieus. Rika couldn't help but notice the flecks of palman blood along his arms and predominantly his hands.

There was a fearful quaver in the wren-type's voice, as if he were about to cry, or panic, or both. He sounded just like she herself did, then. "Please help me. I can't seem to get her to wake up. No matter what I do she won't respond. I-Is she dying? Please help… she's the only thing I have left…" Warren pleaded.

She was hardly sympathetic to his plea. Well, maybe a little bit. Mieus was simply deactivated and leaning safely against his chest, while Chaz was critical and dying and, well, she just didn't have the time for anything else but her own problems. Rika stood, yet instead of moving over to Warren she went back to Chaz and knelt by his side protectively. "I'm busy! Can't you see that? My fiancé is seriously hurt, what are _you_ going to do about it?"

She started to cry and she couldn't stop herself anymore, she had exhausted all her options and now all that was left to be done was to wait for Chaz to pass away. It was heartbreaking. They were going to have such a happy life together built upon all the sacrifices they had made, but just one boot to the foundation had been enough to send it all crashing down. It had only been a dream.

Somebody took her by the hand and gently squeezed. Chaz had _two_ arms, after all. Only one was broken, the other merely weak. "It's okay, Rika. Really, honey, it's okay…" He said to her in a dried-up whisper, hoping to make her feel better. Rika stared at Chaz in surprise. He was facing his _death_ and he worried about _her_? It was too much for her heart to bear.

Warren silently considered Rika's position for a few moments, then he walked over to the edge of the corridor and very carefully set Mieus down by the unconscious Raja. As she was now she wasn't disturbing anybody or being violent, but gods, Warren just wanted to see her open her eyes again. He picked up the discarded medical bag by the straps and made his way over to Rika and Chaz again. He knelt.

"In that case let me help you. I have a fair amount of medical training when it comes to treating palman bodies. In return could you please, _please_ look at Mieus for me? You're bound to know more about android repair than I do." He requested. In addition he also knew _exactly_ where Chaz was wounded and what to do about it because he had caused those wounds in the first place, but he was not about to tell Rika anything about that. If he were lucky he might even have all the tools necessary as well.

Rika had some knowledge about what to do when an android crashed, yes. When Wren or Demi broke and were unable to take care of themselves it was usually she who had to make the required repairs. She probably _could_ fix Mieus if she put her mind to it, but she was loath to allow Warren to touch Chaz. She was extremely wary. "I can't trust you, you are a servant of Siren. You're probably the one who wounded Chaz in the first place." She said coldly.

Ah, so she had suspected that. Warren did not admit it or refute it; he merely ignored the speculative comment. He turned to Rika and regarded her in a serious fashion. "Being a servant does not alter the fact that I dislike seeing people die. My views on bloodshed are my own. I think I can save this lad if you give me the chance. You will just have to trust me. You have Mieus' wellbeing as my collateral. That is enough to keep me tame for the moment."

He opened the flap of the medical bag by unlatching the buckles and began to remove some very official-looking surgical tools and supplies. They involved some very suspicious little knives and needles. What choice did she have left? Without Raja this android was Chaz's only hope for survival. Rika leaned over and touched Chaz gently on his whole shoulder to get his attention. "Chaz? This android here is going to help you, so please hold on for just a while longer. Is that okay?"

Chaz stared at her with absolute puppy-like trust, then looked to Warren and finally realised that the android was there. He was filling a syringe with some sort of cloudy liquid, flicking the shaft of the needle a few times to coax all the air bubbles up to the surface. Excess liquid squirted out of the tip of the needle as he gently depressed the air away. Chaz didn't like the look of that needle and _especially_ the one who was holding it. "Nuh… no…" He answered, making his decision clear.

But that wasn't really an option anymore. Rika felt like she was just about to give her fiancé away to none other than Mephistopheles. "What is that?" She asked, referring to the dreaded needle. Some small part of her protective intuition kept telling her that it might be poison.

And, in a sense, she was kind of right. "Quintamate, highly concentrated. In general it's a very effective painkiller, blocking out all the pain impulses received by your friend's brain here. Administered intravenously it can also create a marked improvement in dopamine and endorphin production. It will stop the pain but Chaz will be pretty much away with the faeries for some hours after this shot." Warren explained calmly. He did not go into the safety issues concerning the intravenous issue of such a drug. There was no time. Already he was removing the hunter's belt from his waist and cinching it tightly about the boy's upper arm.

The numan girl noticed the android's use of Chaz's first name. That was odd. He stretched the boy's well arm out in front of him and handed the extra length of belt out to Rika. She held it firmly, causing the cephalic vein in Chaz's arm to stand out starkly against his skin. Warren hovered the tip of the syringe only millimeters above the hunter's flesh. Rika realised that he was waiting for _her_ go-ahead. She hesitated. "Tell me what you're going to have to do with him." She ordered.

"This will numb him to the procedure, then I will attempt to repair the damaged veins, and then I will clean out and close the shoulder wound. He may very well require a blood transfusion, so please do not stray too far away from this area. I may need you here for a sample. After that I will suture the cut and splint the broken arm. That is everything I am prepared to do for him." Warren smiled. "Nothing too difficult at all." He told her reassuringly.

Rika gave in. "Alright, do what you have to do, just please be very careful with him. I'll go have a closer look at Mieus."

"Thank you. You have my gratitude."

The needle went in and Chaz groaned, but it was only a tiny groan which ended up as a sigh. He closed his eyes and that was the last substantial peep Rika heard out of him for quite some time. Warren removed the tight tourniquet when the shot was delivered and got right to the job at hand. He worked with a quiet eagerness which was parallel to Siren's enjoyment of android repair. There was not that much of a difference between them after all, at least in certain areas. Rika watched him for a minute or two just to make sure Chaz was okay and then finally attended to the fallen Mieus.

Of course, Mieus wasn't anything like the androids Rika was used to fixing. She appeared so _palman_, all of her metal parts were deep down on the inside and far beneath her skin and flesh. There were no access points that she could see either, at least, none that she could visibly find. Rika wasn't about to go ahead and remove her clothing to look for them either. Without an access point to her hidden machinery the girl wasn't quite sure what to do; she had come to a dead end.

What to do with a machine you couldn't tamper with at all? Rika leaned over the android girl and pressed an ear close to Mieus' head, listening extremely carefully with her super sensitive hearing to the slight sounds of her working machinery. All androids emitted a very weak hum to some varying degree, depending on their type or state of being. It had helped her to repair Wren or Demi three years ago when they were not conscious to answer her questions. She listened very carefully now, trying to block out the sound of Warren working on Chaz and the light clink of his surgical instruments.

She was positive she heard something there, so Mieus was definitely not deactivated. She sounded a lot like Demi did when she had been moderately damaged, quietly and peacefully repairing her inner workings while in emergency hibernation mode. Mieus would wake up again, though Rika couldn't accurately predict _when_. Warren had no reason to worry or panic over her, she'd be back to normal soon enough. Rika straightened up and looked over to Chaz again. The major was threading a long needle with what looked like spider-silk, thin and silvery and almost not-there.

"She's fine. All you need is some patience." Rika reported and walked over to stand behind and slightly off to the side of Warren. She placed her hands on her hips. Chaz was still awake, opening his eyes now and then for a few moments at a time, but he was not panting or gasping or whimpering anymore. It seemed like the android was right; Chaz had been completely immunized against the pain.

"Looks like I'll already have plenty of patients at the rate I'm going." Warren joked rather tastelessly to himself as he finished the repairs on the veins he had slashed apart. It was rather difficult to manage the clamp and sew at the same time, but he coped with it. The surgical silk was a godsend, though the android half-wondered why the doctor had kept a stock of it hidden in his quarters. Probably to mend his old socks, he supposed.

"How's Chaz doing?" Rika asked, beginning to feel a little useless. She wanted to do something special for the hunter but all she was reduced to doing was standing there like an idiot. She kind of wanted to go back, wake up Hahn and bring him down here with the others, but Rika feared that the very moment she left the area would be the time Chaz would need her the most.

"I only gave him a small dose of the quintamate and already it's affecting his system far too severely. He doesn't have sufficient blood to dilute the drug. He may enter hypoparalysis." Warren said softly yet bluntly, refusing to sugarcoat the factual truth. His dosage had been correct for a boy Chaz's height and weight, but he had not taken into account the accelerated blood loss due to altitude sickness. His heart was working faster than was normal and that was a terrible thing.

"What does that mean?" Rika demanded, feeling sick herself.

"His heart and lungs will stop. What is your blood type? Does it corroborate with Chaz's?"

Rika had to think about that. He was palman and she was numan; she had never needed to consider to differences in their blood composition before. Seed had engineered her to be the new and improved matriarch of the palman species, by that logic it made sense that her genetic compatibility issues would be minimal, if they existed at all. Seed had been a practical biologist. Rika hoped that she could trust him. "We are compatible. Hook me up, take as much blood as you need." She ordered firmly.

"I must close his wound first, front and back. Sit beside him, I will be with you in a few short minutes." Warren replied as he threaded and sterilized a new surgical needle. Doing this without antiseptic or a conventional anaesthetic was extremely dangerous, but Zonderling's common cigarette lighter and the infirmary's quintamate would just have to do. It reminded him a bit of his time spent as a field medic, only they were not lying in mud and bombs were not going off all around them. Times had certainly changed. The war was over.

The golden android sewed accurately and fast, faster than any palman doctor could hope to achieve. He cleared up the fresh blood with gauze from the medical pack and there was no extra seepage; the silk was holding good and tight. When the wound healed the silk would simply dissolve. It was perfect, really. He tied off the silk and bandaged the wound, pinning it up and then he was done. Warren gently laid Chaz back against the wall again.

"I am going to have to stick a needle into your arm as well, do you understand?" Warren explained as he packed away the bloody gauze and used tools. This time he took out two different needles with sort of a screw to them and a length of clear tubing which was connected to a simplistically designed hand pump. Artificial fangs for a vampire with no more bite.

Rika could already see how the blood transfusion would work. The needles would go into both their arms and the tubing would be connected via the screws, while the pump held by Warren would manipulate blood flow. She nodded to the android and he began to set up the contraption himself, inserting the first cannula into Chaz's arm using the very same vein he had injected into before. The needle was longer and much thicker than the last time, so Rika had to turn her head and look away.

He held the cannula in place using some tape and connected it to the tubing, then it was Rika's turn to undergo the treatment. Nervously she held Chaz's hand with the needle inside. "Try to relax. This will only take a second to install and you will feel no more than a tiny pinprick. Continue to look away if you want but please do not tense up." Warren advised as he tied the tourniquet and got other things prepared.

He sounded just like a doctor and for some reason Rika found that slightly amusing. "Why are you helping us? You're against us and your master ordered you to kill us. Isn't helping against your strict orders? I don't quite understand." She breathed with her eyes squeezed tightly shut, anticipating the sting of the syringe.

"Neither do I." Warren replied honestly. "Currently neither my master nor my partner Mieus are aware of what I am doing. If I were caught the consequences would be severe, but I do not intend on being caught. Lass, I was taught to always help somebody who desperately needs helping. It has become part of my nature now, periodically overriding strict orders. I do not always do the right thing, but eventually I make the correct choice in the end." He reflected for a moment or two. "Even if it is not a good idea."

Rika didn't quite buy it. She knew androids and they were rarely so sincere, save for Demi. "I thought you were doing this for Mieus' sake, so I'd take a look at her for you." She remarked.

"Well, that is also a major factor, yes. Thank you again for that, by the way. If it makes you feel any better or more resolved you can believe I don't care a whit about Chaz and am only doing this for myself and Mieus. Despite this treatment we are still enemies." Rika heard a slight whispery sound, as if something were filling up with air. "If I see you again in the presence of Mieus or my master then I will have no choice but to kill the both of you."

There had been the tiniest hint of patronization in Warren's tone. Rika didn't like it. "Are you going to put this needle into me or not?" She demanded curtly.

Warren chuckled. "I already did about a minute ago."

The girl started and immediately opened her eyes, glancing at her arm. Just as he said there was a tube in her arm funneling blood directly into the body of her love. Warren was holding the length of tubing above their heads to keep the flow running smoothly and using the hand pump to coax the blood along. Rika didn't know what to say. "Oh… okay then." She murmured at last.

There was silence while the major took a little over a pint of blood out of Rika and transplanted it into Chaz. At some point Rika began to feel a little tired, like she had stayed up all night and all day and her limbs felt heavy and cold. It was just slight anemia taking hold, nothing more. Time crept by slowly. Eventually Warren screwed Rika's cannula shut, drained the tube and sealed Chaz's needle too.

"There, that ought to do it. Any more and you won't have the strength to walk back to your spaceship." Warren smiled as he deftly drew the needle out of Chaz's body and covered the tiny hole with a bit of gauze and some tape. He did the same to Rika and the girl had to admit that she barely felt anything more than a sting. The tools were packed away and the android moved on to the next order of business. "Your friend should be just fine. I'm in a hurry so I can't do anything about his ribs, but I can at least splint his arm before you go on your way. Hey, lad! Are you feeling any better?"

Chaz looked up and smiled stupidly at them. Off with the faeries, right, but he _did_ seem much healthier now.

"We'll need to use something tough and solid for the splint." Rika chipped in and then looked about for something matching that physical description. Unfortunately Zelan was pretty sterile and tidy, stuff was never left lying around. Rika's eyes fell to the empty scabbard hanging against the side of Chaz's hip. It was made of very stiff leather and rather long, about the length of his arm. Perfect. The scabbard wasn't _completely_ rigid but it looked like it would have to do.

She moved to unbelt the object from his waist. "Chaz, I'm just gonna borrow this sheath from your sword for a little while. You won't lose it, we're going to set your arm so it can heal." She explained slowly. Chaz just stared at her in doe-eyed wonderment, then he giggled mindlessly in reply.

Rika removed the sheath and handed it to Warren who accepted it without a word. He switched sides to where he was kneeling beside Chaz and inspected the broken limb, lifting it up very carefully. Meanwhile Rika glanced about and noticed Chaz's discarded guardian blade lying lonely amidst metal shards on the floor. She stood and moved to pick it up; there was no sense in losing such an irreplaceable weapon.

"_Don't touch it_."

It sounded like a low, dangerous death threat. Rika froze. For a second Warren appeared like a mirror image of Siren or of Forren when he was in a particularly bad mood, but then the storm clouds cleared and he smiled bashfully in apology. "… I'm very sorry. Nobody here is armed, save for my hands here and your gloves of course. I'd appreciate it if we kept it that way. Don't give me a reason to attack you."

"I was only going to pick it up. This is Chaz's prize weapon." Rika protested tiredly.

Warren shook his head. "I have two values in my programming right now, my orders from Siren and my desire to help you. Currently the former is overridden by the latter, but if you arm yourself any further that adds value to my prerogative to obey Master Siren. Please do not change it."

Rika left the weapon where it was.

The android tore away the red sleeve of Chaz's clothing and performed a series of realignments which would have been excruciatingly painful if Chaz hadn't been numb and mostly unaware. Warren set the bone as straight as he could and tied the splint to the arm with some preliminary binding, taking a few minutes to suture the last open cut where the fractured bone had poked through. He covered the rest of the arm with tight restrictive bandages and when he was done he delicately placed the limb back against the boy's front.

"This is only an extremely basic treatment. Take him to a real palman physician as soon as possible and they can fix him up properly. I can give you some more medication for his pain but use it sparingly; that stuff is very dangerous in large or frequent quantities." Warren said as he packed up his things and rose to his full height.

He was going to be okay. Rika breathed a deep, profound sigh of relief. Help had come from the most unlikely place and she was so very, very grateful that it did. She watched Warren go and check on Mieus in the hopes that she might have woken up in the interim. She hadn't, but her partner didn't seem that concerned anymore. Warren actually _trusted_ Rika for some strange reason, though she supposed it couldn't really have been that strange because she had trusted him right back.

Warren didn't think it wise to dawdle any longer. "Alright, it's time for you to go back to your ship. You have nothing more to prove here. Leave Zelan and never come back." He requested as he hauled the unconscious Raja up to his feet. To him the bishop was as light as a feather and it was easy to toss him over his shoulder and carry him that way.

Rika had to protest. "We can't leave. What about Rune and Demi and Wren? I can't go back to the ship without knowing if they're alright. Zelan is _Wren's_ space station, that siren-type had no right in taking it away from him!" She announced, making her refusal quite clear.

"Oh, there are _so_ many things wrong with that statement that I don't know where to begin." Warren scoffed and smiled at the same time, amused. "I don't want to start an argument with you, but please take my advice. If you stick around here for much longer all the work I've just done for Chaz here would be for nothing. If you care about him then think about what is best for _his_ wellbeing. Go back to your ship and leave, I'll even help you move your friends if that's what you want."

Damn this infuriating android! Why did he have to be so… so _difficult_ to hate? It was so very aggravating, especially the fact that he had a point. Chaz meant everything to her, absolutely everything. His safety was important and they would be of no use to anybody if they ended up dead.

The PA system clicked on and an automated voice temporarily filled the air; the cold soulless voice of Zelan. _/ "Life support system deactivated. Life support at fifty three percent and dropping. Total deactivation in minus sixteen minutes." /_

"… Sounds like Master Siren is pulling out all the stops to terminate his targets." Warren said, making a casual observation as they both glanced up in reaction to the sound. He looked directly at Rika now, who was beginning to feel increasingly unsure. "There you have it. Even if you stay what else can you do here but die a cold and breathless death? Your ship has life support, you should go to it as quickly as you can."

"My friend Hahn is up the corridor too. I'll go get him, I at least can't leave him behind!" Rika exclaimed as she took a few hasty steps away, passing by Warren and Raja.

"I'll take this one to the ship and you go ahead then! We'll both come back afterwards to get Chaz! What's the name of your ship, lass?" He called as the girl ran away from him. His orders from Siren screamed at him to chase her down like a terrier and kill her, but he resisted. If he could get away with it scot free then he would continue to resist.

"It's the Landale! You can't miss it! It's the biggest ship in the hangar!" She called back and then she moved out of earshot. Warren was left on his own to his own devices, and it would be _so_ easy for him now to complete the task and the orders his master had so explicitly set him out to accomplish.

He hurried off in the opposite direction and made his way directly to the spaceship hangar. Raja bumped heavily against his armor as he moved, but when he got there it was easy to sniff out his destination. The Landale was like a giant locusta trying to blend into a swarm of monsterflies, big and hulking and simply not fooling anybody.

The android didn't possess the code to break the ship's security lock, so he could not get inside. Warren climbed the ramp and laid Raja gently up against the hull, then he turned around and left the hangar to go get Chaz. Rika was back and waiting for him grimly with the young hunter, a partially conscious and grumpy Hahn leaning heavily against her side.

He appeared to be in some considerable pain too. Hahn glared at Mieus then Warren suspiciously. "That little minx there broke my jaw." He complained through clenched teeth, trying not to move his mouth too much.

They had already wasted more than a third of their oxygen and time. This was just another repeat of last night, complete with all the confusion and fear. The only difference was that they were not all together anymore; their team had been split straight down along the middle. Rika prayed for the safety of the androids and Rune, yet she also felt like a betrayer for not doing more and evacuating with her own hide intact.

"We… we're going to go back to the ship and wait for the others there. I'm sure they'll show up eventually. If not we'll go, I can fly the Landale in a pinch, but let me be the first to tell you that we _will_ be coming back." Rika warned. Warren nodded his understanding with that infuriatingly kind smile on his face and then easily lifted Chaz right off his feet and the ground.

"Hi Rika. You got taaaaaaaaaall…" Chaz giggled to Warren, poking his nose childishly as the android mimicked a sigh in patient tolerance.

"Alright Hahn, let's go." Rika murmured with a coaxing nudge and together the party of four made the last trip to their ticket home. What a failure of a mission. They had put so much planning and hope into it and it had all gone balls up anyway. Rika kept picturing Rune, Wren and Demi's faces, knowing that she was about to leave them all behind. She was saving Chaz, Raja and Hahn, but it still did not feel like nearly enough.

There was not enough time for them to walk. Hahn kept wincing and breathing hard as he limped quickly beside Rika, his chest a heated fire that was still burning bright and strong. He really wanted to _hurt_ somebody, to get some kind of revenge for his wounds and his mouth. He kept his eyes on the android in front of them who was carrying Chaz. Who was that again? He didn't have a very clear idea of what the hell was going on.

And as Warren retraced his steps to the spaceship docks, surrounded by enemies and with a wounded boy in his arms, he began to reflect whimsically on the past half hour or so. Frequently his actions contradicted his desires, and his desires contradicted his actions. He had been so precise in wounding Chaz almost to the point of expiration that it made absolutely no sense to perform a hundred and eighty degree turn and patch up the damage he'd caused.

Why had he done that? Why was he doing this, and for what reason? Well, the best he could figure was that essentially he hadn't wanted to wound Chaz in the first place, and the very first chance he had Warren had fixed up his terrible mistake. Becoming Siren's servant had been his last shot at life and he was rapidly becoming to trust and respect the siren-type, yet for now he only really trusted himself. Inevitably that would change in the near future.

If Warren _really_ wanted somebody to help Mieus he could have taken her right back to Siren, but he hadn't. He had trusted Rika instead. Maybe all he was searching for was a valid excuse to help Chaz in the end.

Raja was miraculously awake when they returned to the entry hatch of the Landale. He was standing up and rubbing his forehead as if he had a truly apocalyptic headache. "D-Did anybody catch the number of the iceberg that hit me?" He groaned as Rika and company came to a halt in front of him.

Without answering him Rika let go of Hahn and entered her team's access code into the number panel of the vehicle. The hatch slid open to allow ingress and Rika maintained the reins of control, distributing orders to everybody around her. "Okay Raja, you go on and get inside. Hahn, you're not as wounded as you think you are. Take Chaz off this wren's hands and lead him into the ship with Raja. I'll join you in a few minutes; I just gotta tie up one loose end first."

The men just stared at her in confusion or incredulity. "Go on, move it!" She snapped and that was like a kick in the pants for Hahn and Raja, shoving them into action. The bishop stumbled away into the spaceship, muttering about finding some headache medicine. Hahn winced as he stood up straight and took custody of the drugged-up hunter. Chaz couldn't stand properly under his own power so Hahn treated him like a blind drunk friend, lending him a spare shoulder to lean on.

When Rika's charges were safely away in the spaceship the numan girl relaxed and focused back on Warren standing there, now empty-handed. The atmosphere was becoming almost unbearably thin. She only had a minute or two at the most. "I'm not stupid, you know. I'm aware that you were the one who tried to kill Chaz."

"It's very fortunate that you managed to incapacitate Mieus when you did, then." Warren replied as he opened the medical pack he had kept with him slung over his shoulder. He continued to talk as he searched through it. "I will give you my current supply of quintamate and some spare syringes. It is enough for a month's worth of regular use, but _only_ give some to Chaz if the pain becomes too much for him to bear. Fifteen units should do the trick. Here."

He gave Rika a small case containing half a dozen vials of cloudy liquid and a handful of empty syringes sealed in airtight plastic satchels. She accepted them from him and for a moment her hand came in contact with his, which was icy cold and covered in Chaz's dried blood. A feeling of revulsion washed over her but she ignored it. "Thank you." Rika said quietly.

"You may be a filthy layan, but I do hope you can get out of here safely. If we meet again what I've done here never happened; I will be nothing else but your enemy." Warren smiled at Rika. "Please take care of yourself, you _and_ your bairn. Goodbye."

Briefly he gave a little wave then turned and walked down the ramp, leaving the spaceship hangar. Bairn? What did that mean? Rika didn't quite recognize the word. It wasn't important; he was probably just referring to Chaz. The pink-haired girl had one final look around in the vague hope that Rune and the others might be running into the hangar at the last minute. All she could see was Warren calmly leaving the area.

With a soft frown Rika retreated into the Landale and closed the door behind her.

Rune, Wren and Demi had to take care of themselves, now.

†††

Mieus' repairs reached their completion and at last she stirred back into consciousness. Her head ached, sending a constant flow of pain impulses directly into her positronic brain. She voiced acknowledgement of these impulses as a soft, breathy moan. Somebody touched her when she made that noise, startling her into opening her eyes. Immediately she wished that she hadn't; the impact earlier had mistuned her optical sensors.

She blinked a few times to fix her vision and the brightness was switched down to more manageable levels. "Thank goodness." Somebody said from above her. "I got back here just in time."

"It's you…" Mieus sighed weakly and struggled to push herself further up against the wall. Warren helped her up carefully from where he was kneeling. Mieus blinked again. Warren smelled like smoke and blood and melted metal. The front part of his armor was ruined, scratched, and lastly he had a particularly large hole in both his side and his shoulder.

"Good morning, Mieus." He said brightly to her. "Did you sleep well? I missed you."

She started, trying to jump to her feet, but Warren held her by the shoulder and kept her sitting down. "W-What happened to you? Where are the layans? Is Master Siren alright? Oh… you must be in such pain…" She hummed, touching his chest that was no longer warm from Chaz's nathu attack.

"I'm fine, I don't mind the pain. It feels pretty good. I am more worried about you, darling. How is your head feeling?"

"Tell me about the layans." Mieus protested stubbornly, trying to get up.

"Alright. I have already taken care of your targets and mine. There is nothing more to worry about, you are safe now. With our targets neutralized we should go and make sure Master Siren is alright. Would you like to come with me or do you need to rest here longer?"

"Were the layans cruel to you?" The android girl pressed, remembering her last exchange with Rika before she'd been manipulated and had fallen unconscious. It was rather hard to believe that sweet little Warren had taken out all four targets easily while she was away.

Warren cocked his head, puzzled. "Huh? What do you mean?" He asked.

"Nothing. Just… I'd be very upset if anything bad happened to you. I'd take it as a personal insult. Master Siren gave you to me, so you are mine." Mieus admitted, running her hand up along the sword scratches in his arm.

"Then you were not insulted." Warren replied, taking Mieus' hand from his upper arm and holding it in two of his own. After a moment of bashful hesitation he leaned down and kissed the top of her hand. "That really is the nicest thing anyone has said about me for a very long time. Mieus, I'm starting to think that maybe I-" He stopped, cutting himself short.

"You what?" She asked, having a very vague idea of what he was about to say but not quite believing it. It was silly, especially coming from one android to another, but she still wanted to hear it anyway. She half-smiled, amused and at the same time anxious.

The major laughed nervously. "I'm not sure. I don't really know what I was going to say. Maybe parts of my vocabulary are flawed as well." He was regretful to the fact that he had killed the moment, but it was time to press on. He let go of Mieus and stood again, offering her his hand. "Come on, Master Siren may need us." He said.

"Yeah, yeah…" Mieus sighed and accepted his offer of help. Maybe she was a little disappointed, but it didn't matter.

They left together, down the once again lifeless hallways of Zelan where no living thing could survive. Nothing at all.

By that token Siren had probably already won.


	22. Battleground Zelan

Fire was Siren's welcome from the bottom of Zelan's heart. Fire was a physical expression of hatred, and the red haired wren-type certainly had plenty of that. He could call forth the heat at will and he was no stranger to it; remembering so very many years with the angry fire by his side.

For an android the intensity of his nafoi spell was phenomenal, given the fact that there was only half as much oxygen in the air to feed it than usual. Siren gestured and performed the ancient esper signal that mean 'fire' and everything ignited before him, the air catching alight and leaping towards his foes. He followed this up with a brief volley of cannon fire, shooting through the flames and the smoke. The aim wasn't great because his vision was temporarily obscured, but he was confident that his shots would be able to hit something.

The two-part strike came at Rune and his company quick and there was hardly any time to move, yet the survival instinct and evasive action practically made their legs move all on their own. Rune could pre-emptively estimate the size of the spell but even he was surprised, diving to the left and leaping off the floor as the fired energy bullets zinged past his ear like hornets. The temperature rose dramatically, singeing the ends of his robes if not his friends.

Demi got out of the blast zone rather quickly too and expected her master to follow, as he was always at her side. Perhaps it was the other way around instead. Anyway, like Rune Demi also recoiled from the heat but ran to the right, protecting her own body from danger. Three rapidly-moving and powerful energy based projectiles shot through in the flames, one missing its target but the other two hitting home. One struck Demi in the upper arm as she fled, the other hitting Wren squarely in the chest.

Their armour stopped the bullets from reaching their inner circuitry but it burned down all the way into three of the five metal layers. It was a close call; those were certainly some powerful shots. Wren's reflexes were the slowest when compared to his two comrades and he had tried to back away when the fire had started, but he had not anticipated both the magic _and_ the shots. It was as if a giant had tried to push him over. He had just barely been able to maintain his balance.

Rune hit the ground on his elbow and winced as his funny bone received a good beating. He flinched as tingly pain spiralled up all the way to the tips of his fingers. It hurt like hell but this was no time to lie back and hesitate now. Rune had to think only of two people; himself and his enemy. There was barely enough air in this control room for him to breathe right now, if the fire ate it all up then he was simply going to suffocate.

He couldn't let that happen. Rune flexed feeling back into his velvet-gloved hand and picked up his staff which had fallen with him, pointing it not at the enemy android but at the inferno he had caused. Rune could cast easily with his hands just as Siren was doing but his laconia staff was like an amplifier, focussing all his magical energies into one point. He needed to focus to be able to do this properly.

There was a flash of pale blue light as Rune cancelled out the fire with his ice spell. The sudden low temperatures compressed the air, cutting off the fire's fuel and smothering it to death. Any lingering flames which protested the rough treatment were immediately frozen into clear, beautiful icy glass. It lasted for only a few moments before they shattered. There, threat neutralized… for now.

The little boxy robot on wheels sitting right off to the side of Siren made a long cooing noise, a general sound to show that Whistler was impressed. It had never seen anything like that before in its short automated life. Rune picked himself up from off the floor, maintaining eye contact with the enemy. The no-man's land between them was blackened and scorched, yet frosted over at the same time.

Siren merely watched for a moment, of Rune getting up and of Wren staggering under the force of the shot. The layan never ceased to cancel his magic out, but Siren was only half an esper and frankly hoped that Rune would be able to do better. A tiny smile quirked his lips. "… Please. If you are just going to succumb so easily I cannot see why I allowed you on board in the first place." He announced.

Rune and Wren seemed to recover at the same time and they advanced towards Siren together, one gripping his laconia staff and the other with a smoking bullet hole in his chest. They had fought together so often in the past that they didn't have to speak; they already knew what to do. Were Chaz and Rika with them also the old team would be together again at last, but they could do this on their own.

This was just a continuation of the confrontation started on Azura, and Siren so very deeply wanted to repay those two for the head injury and hyper-jammed induced deactivation. Now that he had the upper hand it was only fair. His body was not completely repaired yet but certain other features were fixed and ready to go. Let them come.

Wren's photon eraser cannon reached maximum charge as he raised it, aiming for Siren's figurative heart. He could detect Demi far away from them and possibly scrambling to find some way to help, and Rune was by his side; cooking up a fire spell of his own. If they could force Siren to the ground and disarm him of his weapon he would be neutralized.

They attacked together but this time Siren was ready and waiting. The moment before Wren fired Siren charged at him and grabbed the android by his gun arm, raising it slightly and then using his strength to spin Wren around and alter his aim. Side by side, Siren's hand enclosed over Wren's and with a predatory smile he forced his enemy to depress the trigger.

Rune started, suddenly the target. Siren had manipulated Wren and turned him into a weapon. He had only a heartbeat to act. The esper hit the ground as if his very life depended on it, which it certainly did. The superheated cannon blast flew over his head and missed him by only a few millimetres, Rune thumping ungracefully to the floor all over again. So he was still this crazy android's main target. Just great.

The expression on Wren's face was that of surprise, yet he quickly got to the task of gaining control of the situation again. He drew his free arm back and slammed his elbow as hard as possible into Siren's side, shoving the other android away. His hand slipped away from Wren's and he immediately raised his cannon, this time using it to smash Siren across the face as a simple blunt instrument.

As Rune climbed to his feet Siren recoiled from the strike, firing his shot weapon two more times to distract Wren while he recovered. He anticipated this defensive assault and hastily sidestepped out of the line of fire, sharply moving to Siren's left while the bullets wound up burning right into the metal of the opposing wall, leaving half-melted holes.

Rune and Wren began to somewhat juggle their enemy. After Wren had struck Siren the Lutz had popped up and without a word assaulted him with a hewn spell, intense gusts of razor bladed wind shredding through the outer layers of his armour. When the spell ended Wren came forward and gave the other wren-type a good taste of his fist. Siren took the assault well, but when the very first break in the battle's rhythm appeared he wiped briefly at his bloody split lip and then suddenly… disappeared.

He was gone. Rune and Wren were left with an empty space. They had been so focussed on attacking Siren that neither of them had actually seen the moment he had vanished. Rune blinked at Wren in confusion and Wren looked down at his bloody knuckles. The traces of blood on his hand were surprisingly red. That was strange. Second generation wren-types and upwards were not supposed to have red-coloured synthetic blood cells. Was it- could it be that Siren was maybe a first generation wren type?

This was not the time or the place to consider anything like that. He and Rune looked about in vain for their target. "Where'd he go?" The esper asked out loud, his hackles raised. He hated feeling so vulnerable with a target that could be anywhere.

"Stand behind me, back to back. Demi, get over here immediately!" Wren ordered with authority. The smaller android jumped a little as he shouted at her but she immediately obeyed. Rune thought it was a good idea and stood closely beside his friend, trusting him with his back. Wren frowned. "It seems as though he has repaired his thermoptical system."

"So we'll just have to wreck it again like last time. I can have a tandle technique ready for him if you give me five seconds." Rune replied, turning his head slightly to speak to his comrade. When Demi scurried up to them and put her own back to their side he felt the girl gently take his empty hand. It was a relief that she had made it safely; Siren could have easily been able to snatch her in the middle of her journey.

"Negative, Rune. You will not pursue that course of action. Remember where you stand. This is the core of Zelan's control centre, if your stray electricity damages the system in any way Zelan may become non-functional. I will not risk that chance." Wren protested calmly.

Wren had a point. Even Siren, wherever he was now, could also see that point. Zelan was irreplaceable and both parties would be in a much better position were it left untouched. Rune chewed the inside of his lip. So where did that leave him now?

The next volley of shots fired would have killed Rune if he hadn't been defended by Demi's barrier shield. The little android's barrier could absorb all hostile energy sources and the bullets were no exception, causing the shield to flicker for a few moments before coming back online. Wren's order that they stand back to back had turned all three of them into an extremely small phalanx unit; defended on every side.

They were capable of defending themselves from Siren, for now at least, but if they couldn't attack either then they were just sitting ducks with nowhere to go. Rune thought back to the night before. While cloaked the only one who could detect Siren was him. The android's esperine magical signal was like a very weak homing beacon to him. The thermoptical energy couldn't cover _that_ up.

A brilliant idea hit Rune and he smiled. Let that siren's inexplicable magic be his downfall. He nudged Wren gently to get his attention. "Hey, if I gave you a bearing to shoot at would you trust me to give directions?" He asked quietly, just in case their enemy was close by to hear.

Wren considered this stoically. They could all hear metallic footsteps and he raised his barrier shield quickly to deflect more shots. The heat absorbed was amazing. If Siren got bored of shooting at them and went back to magic then they were in trouble. He could hear the wren-type laughing softly at them. Wren would very much like to hear that laughter end, provided it did not harm Zelan. "I will trust you." He agreed.

"Are you sure that's a wise idea?" Demi piped up.

"Please follow my example." Was all Wren had to say to that. She had a gun too; she might as well use it.

Demi nodded firmly. "Yes master."

So now it was all up to Rune. He had to still his mind, calm his heart, and perform a meditation without losing himself in the process. Quite hard to do while an invisible demon had them in his sights as he stalked them. The esper closed his eyes and emptied his lungs, trying to open his inner eye which could see far beyond the physical plane. Relax and forget about the urgency, the need. The most important thing now was to see.

"Your instructions?" Wren interrupted Rune's concentration to push him. He deflected three more shots with his barrier shield but the force behind it was weakening. He could probably take ten more shots before the shield would drop.

"Shh, I'm thinking…" Rune frowned as he attempted to ignore his friend. Demi guarded his front and Wren guarded his back, so there was no need to fear. Espers and priests, anybody who could cast real, true magic burned like they bore an inner flame. Rune burned brightly as the Lutz, Siren burned darkly as the freakish hybrid that he was. He was circling them, not standing still for long, savouring the moment. Rune could follow him in his mind so long as he didn't open his eyes.

As the androids were beginning to get seriously anxious Rune finally made up his mind and shouted out his orders. If he made a mistake and told them to shoot at a delicate area he was confident his friends would use their own judgement and compensate for the error. "Ten 'o clock from Demi's perspective! _Fire_!" He cried.

Demi's ten 'o clock was Wren's two 'o clock, so both androids robotically acted on Rune's orders. Rune was out of range so he could not blindly contribute, but the energy unleashed by Wren's cannon and Demi's smaller weapon was enough to incinerate a standard target. The explosion echoed within the control centre's walls. The shots struck nothing, that is, the blasts hit something that did not appear to be there.

Rune and his team waited for the smoke and green-tinged energy to clear. A silhouette appeared in the smoke, crouched defensively like a wounded, cornered animal. They got to see a second or two of Siren recovering, a murderous look of hatred on his face before he stood again and moved, fading back into invisibility.

Damn. They had managed to hurt him but it hadn't been enough to wreck his thermoptical system again. Rune could not see this now as he was, so Wren took the liberty of voicing it for him. "The first strike hit but was not successful. Further orders, please." He requested blankly. They would hit him until he fell and he did not get up again. Receiving orders this way was beginning to remind Wren of his old days in the army.

"Okay, okay…" Rune agreed, seeing what the others could not see and vice-versa. Siren had a definite limp now and he had lowered his gun, his flame burning brighter as the android concentrated in casting magic. This time he was within his own range. Rune prepared to blindly cast a spell over Demi's head. "Five 'o clock from Wren's perspective! Get him!"

They missed. Siren was a fast learner and he had heard Rune's second shout, certainly he wasn't going to stand still like an idiot and just accept the firing squad. The android got out of the way as quickly as he possibly could, silently diving out of the line of fire and heading straight for Rune. The shots and the fire spell damaged the bullet-pocked wall further, revealing the inner wires and electrical cable within.

It was very simple. Siren could see that the layan was the one giving orders and so it was the layan who needed to be removed first. Those barriers could deflect energy-based projectiles, but physical force could pass straight through as if the shield were made of air. Limping but still unimaginably strong, Siren lunged at Rune and grabbed him by the arm before the esper could sense him there and recoil. It was easy; all he had to do was reach over the short Le Cille girl's head.

Rune felt a sudden vice-like grip on his arm and the first thought he had was that he was going to wind up with a horrible bruise. There was no way he could resist it, it was like being pulled by a train. Rune was hauled forward and out of his phalanx protection, knocking Demi aside. "You need to keep your mouth shut." Siren growled, sliding his hand up Rune's arm to get a better grip on him, and then he lifted and tossed the man across the room as if he were a doll made of rags.

Demi tried to snatch at Rune when the esper was pulled away, but two things stopped her from succeeding. The first was that her arm was too short and her fingertips merely brushed at the sleeve of his robe, and the second was that if she _did_ yank him back with the same force as Siren pulling forward she might seriously injure her friend.

The Lutz went flying and wound up slamming his head against the surface of Zelan's control panel. The way Siren had thrown him meant he hit the terminal almost upside-down, taking a tumble and landing in a sprawled heap. Blood flowed. He wasn't unconscious but rattled and kind of shocked. Still invisible, Siren straightened up. "Whistler, do not just sit there like a broken heap. Participate in the battle. I insist upon it." He said impassively.

Whistler's top half perked up immediately like a dog that had been called. It was watching the fight but it hadn't wanted to interfere with its master's plans. It squeaked in its little robot's version of a battle cry and charged, wheels spinning as it careened towards Rune to finish him off. It readied its small laser. Truthfully Whistler wasn't strong enough to harm an android, but a palman like Rune was easy game.

Demi intercepted. Like Whistler she also ran towards Rune, but to give aid rather than to fry him into a crisp. When she reached the esper she knelt beside him and raised her cannon, waiting for Whistler to arrive. She had a charge ready and waiting for it, yet Demi also turned to her friend and hoped fervently that Rune wasn't hit hard enough to be concussed.

Wren turned to face where he hoped Siren would be. The phalanx was shattered and now all he could do was continue the battle regardless. He was about to set a few logic programs in motion to guess where Siren may be standing when a horrible, pained scream tore through Zelan, cutting the heated battle atmosphere like a scythe. There was just enough pain in that scream as there was frustration.

For a moment almost everybody froze, on both sides. Rune was the only one unable to hear the scream, and he was too busy shaking the stars out of his eyes to notice the others had paused. Demi looked around the control area anxiously as Whistler rolled to a slow halt, its extendable eye waving around; seemingly confused. Wren went still, expressionless, and even _Siren_ exited his stealth mode to appear visible to his foes. Perhaps his concentration had lapsed due to the cry.

Only the androids had heard the scream. It was because the sound had been produced on a wavelength that only they could hear. Were Demi capable of paling she would have. "Mieus…" She murmured, but did not budge from Rune's side.

Siren had just lost Mieus. She had dropped right off his list of member addresses and became offline. The layans had gotten her, but that was not his concern right now. At least Warren still seemed to be online and preoccupied with his orders. The ancient android gazed confidently at Wren, who was frowning. "It is of no consequence. What happens here is more important." He said.

Strange to see somebody talking so calmly with blood pouring down his face from where Wren had struck him repeatedly. His Palma ring of the stars had really cut up one of Siren's temples quite badly. Beneath that red blood and synthetic flesh there lay cold, unfeeling steel. "Just who are you, Siren?" Wren asked, buying some time as Rune struggled to gather his bearings and stand. "Why have you come here?"

Siren's answer was demure, with just the slightest hint of arrogance. Even while wounded he still seemed to appear righteous, perfectly in control. "I thought that was already clear. I am but a humble servant of the correct way; the way of Lord Orakio Sa Ruik. I'm here to punish you heretics with death. Stop trying to find complexities in a very simple fact."

This time it was Wren's turn to smile, even though it was only a very small one. "Were we not meant to be dead some minutes ago, according to your estimation?" It was a surprisingly wicked observation coming from somebody like Wren.

Rune stood and touched his head where it hurt. There was blood in his hair, but not enough to be cause for concern. Demi kind of helped him up by offering her shoulder, and when Whistler approached and readied its laser Rune simply drew back his boot and kicked the little robot as hard as he could, sending Whistler squealing and reeling. Clear waves of heat turned his laconia staff a dull red at the end, like a matchstick. Rune was now _angry_.

Wren's body altered itself, the plates of his shoulder armour lifting away to reveal the dark gleaming barrels of the android's napalm cannons. A decidedly chemical-like smell filled the thin air, the napalm in its safe state ready to be ignited. He was going to use his own burst rockets weapon in the control centre. Was that a smart thing to do? Maybe. Probably. Fire was a lot safer than electricity, in theory.

To complete the triangle, and to disrupt his enemies and prevent Rune and Wren combining their skills into the macrostic technique shooting star, Siren focussed his inner power into his spellcasting hand. Not another nafoi spell like Rune, but the same energy-based blast that had destroyed his cryogenic prison for good. It would rip through Wren in the same fashion and destroy his core. He stood back, aiming, his hand shining with compressed light.

"Nafoi!"

"Nathu!"

"Activating burst rockets system."

As Whistler attempted to right itself by using its extendable eye as leverage, Demi watched the three men unleash their strongest attacks all at the same time. To call the explosion powerful was a severe understatement. She recoiled from it and _she_ was many feet away. Rune was blown back from the combustible air and hit the ground flat on his back, but this time he was well and truly out of the fight. The only reason he hadn't been incinerated instantly was because he had been standing behind Siren and was far away from Wren. His staff lay askew close to the enemy android, having fallen from his hands before Rune fell.

Ironically, while Siren's nathu technique caused the firestorm to go crazy in the first place and seriously injure the target, it was the general thrust of the laser pushing Wren back and slamming him hard against the wall that saved him from being caught up in the attack. The laser struck him and destroyed what was left of his chest armour, causing raw burning pain to rip unchecked through his body and shatter his hold on consciousness. Wren's awareness vanished like a light bulb blinking out.

Siren was consumed in the flames. He knew the fire well, so when it took him he was somehow unconcerned. When it destroyed a very important part of him it was no great loss. The ancient android sunk down into the fire and involuntarily deactivated himself to protect his inner workings from harm. He was vulnerable like this but he was shielded by the fire, just as his armour glowed burning red from the heat.

The smoke cleared and then he knelt, one of three unmovable bodies. Demi was the only person left awake on Zelan, if you didn't count Whistler buzzing in frustration as it tried to get up on its own. It just couldn't seem to make it. She rose slowly, lonely, wondering what to do next. Her eyes widened in shock and horror when she saw Siren and what the fire had done to him. He wasn't bleeding anymore but it would have been better if he had; less gruesome.

His flesh had burned and melted right off his face. All that was left was metal, a reinforced layer of facial features which had helped to give the flesh its proper shape. Now it was gone, framed by his seemingly indestructible fire-red hair.

Demi found herself staring at him from the sheer grossness of it all. When she eventually snapped out of it a single important thought came to mind. What should she do? Should she run over to Siren and finish him off while the bigger android was wounded and non-functional? She looked at him and supposed that she probably should, but she couldn't. She was too afraid. There was the chance he might reactivate and harm her, and she was frightened of something like that.

Her top priority was her friends. Rune and Wren could be seriously hurt. She moved to the esper first and dropped down to her knees. He had a gash on his scalp from where he'd hit the edge of the control panel and the firestorm hadn't exactly damaged his body, but it _had _sent it locking down into shock. Demi leaned over him and placed a hand on his chest, reaching out to check the pulse from his throat. She paused. It was then she realised his lips had turned faintly blue.

He had a pulse, but Rune had stopped breathing.

The small android didn't panic, though she wanted to. The extremely thin atmosphere in this room coupled with the shock of the explosion had been too much for Rune's body to handle. Demi considered administering CPR, but what good would that do for him but breathe hardly sustainable air into his starving lungs?

She had to work quickly. Demi stood and rushed to the main control panel, climbing up into the chair and accessing Zelan's computer mainframe. It had only been a day but Siren had already begun and made some serious steps to completely overhaul the system. To Demi it was like coming home and discovering her home structurally the same, but reorganized and redecorated in a completely different way. The life support system was not where she initially thought it would be.

Fortunately it didn't take long to find, and even better than that it wasn't password protected this time. Siren probably hadn't expected anybody to tamper with the system while he was in the same room as them. However, one small problem had Demi biting her lip in dismay. Complete control of the life support system had been granted to Siren's positronic brain alone, via a wireless up-link. She could tamper with the life support of _this_ room in particular, but the rest of Zelan was completely closed off to her.

But for now this one room was enough. Demi pushed the life-support back up to one hundred percent and detected the influx of oxygen and temperature rush back into the room. Satisfied, Demi hopped off her chair and rushed back to Rune, moving him about to clear his airways and make sure he hadn't swallowed his tongue. His heartbeat was weaker, much weaker, but still there. She commenced CPR.

Two uncertain minutes of carefully controlled respiration and Rune was coughing in his unconsciousness, whereupon Demi rolled him onto his side in the recovery position. Colour seemed to come back into his lips and his face. Demi actually sighed in relief. With the crisis averted she looked to the two wren-types also damaged and in their respective heaps. It hurt to see her master lying there, with that bullet hole and great big laser wound in his chest. They could be out for, well, she had no idea.

Internally they were working incredibly fast, busily repairing themselves. Demi quickly rushed back to the terminal to gather some more information on the life support system, taking a moment to tip Whistler over again just after the little robot had finally righted itself with a triumphant squeal.

Rune wasn't the only one who needed to breathe on this space station. In these free minutes, if possible, Demi hoped that she could lend a hand to her friends who were fighting their own battles elsewhere on Zelan. Her clearance to fiddle with the life support was still active, yet there was no way for her to input her commands into the program, breaking it down into components, hoping to find some accessible input that way.

The time it took for the wrens to repair themselves were many minutes longer than usual, but like identical brothers or clones of themselves they reactivated at the very same time. As Siren opened his eyes and attempted to stand, he briefly wondered why the pain receptors in his facial area were either screaming in agony or totally gone. Wren pushed himself up and winced, then slowly reached an arm up and detached the ruined armour plates from his chest.

Torn cables from his gun and his arm trailed after him as he moved his hand. The impact had severed his weapon from his body, and without external repair work he would be unable to power his own weapon. His cannon lay beside him, completely dead. Wren merely looked at it blankly for a second and then got up without any aid.

In his experience wren-types did not always need a gun to be dangerous. Wren did not speak; he just rose and made his way towards Siren without a sound. When war is declared one can only do one thing in the end; that is, simply kill the offending presence with the minimum amount of sacrifice while the enemy's guard was still down. He could easily do what Demi could not. That was why he was the master and she the servant.

As Wren stalked towards the recovering, wounded Siren, over on the other side of the room Demi made a breakthrough. She thought she might have found a proper access to the program and entered her commands eagerly: to restore one hundred percent life support to the totality of Zelan. Now that Siren was online again a new opportunity had just popped up out of thin, or normal, air.

From the corner of his eyes Siren looked at Demi. He detected the usurping attempt on _his_ system and smiled nastily. _No chance,_ he thought and touched upon the program himself in revenge.

_// "Life support system deactivated. Life support at fifty three percent and dropping. Total deactivation in minus sixteen minutes." //_

The automated voice seemed to taunt Demi and all her efforts with cruelty. "What? No!" She cried and raced to find some way, _any_ way to stop it. The system that she and her master knew so well had become their enemy. If Demi could have cried she would have; it was just so unfair. Rune was safe, but what of Chaz and Rika and Raja and Hahn…?

"… What have I done?" She asked herself, aghast.

Wren was bare-handed, but there was a weapon left lying on the floor which did not require electricity. He picked up Rune's laconia staff and held it awkwardly, but really there was no proper way to hold a staff incorrectly. In some ways it wasn't so difficult at all. From there he went straight toward Siren, weapon in hand.

Siren knew he was coming and his arm shot out at a right angle, like a puppet with its strings suddenly pulled. He aimed his gun at Wren and fired, so confident of his accuracy that he did not even feel the need to look at his adversary. With some of Wren's armour gone a single shot could destroy him. That was all that Siren needed. His arm recoiled slightly with the shot and the energy was taxed from his system and then he felt a pain, a sharp pain, and his wrist was slapped away.

His shot was knocked down and made a bullet hole in the floor before his feet. Smoke rose from it, but at least it hadn't been another wound upon Wren's body. The dark-haired android had actually taken the staff and used it to parry Siren's arm, cracking it smartly across his wrist and deflecting his attack. Siren glanced up at Wren with his half-burned, half-destroyed face, his arm pushing against the tough density of the stave. Wren was unaffected by the sight. "Please drop your weapon and surrender." He said coolly.

Siren said nothing, but shot his hand out to try and wrench the staff out of Wren's hands. It didn't work, for Wren pulled away in time and drew his weapon back, gaining force, and then he brought it down again upon his enemy and struck Siren over the head hard enough to crush a typical palman's skull.

But Siren had a rather thick skull, made of a material much tougher than bone. His senses were rattled for a few moments, but he had a more serious shock when Wren hit him again, and then a third time. Lastly, mimicking a move he had seen Rune use once many years ago, Wren hooked the length of the staff behind Siren's good leg, the one that wasn't limping, and pulled. He fell.

He sunk to his knees before the other wren-type but grabbed the weapon that had tripped him. Obviously as an android Siren was going to be remarkably resilient to the assault, but Wren had never known anybody to take a beating like _that_ absolutely silent either. The Silent Wren indeed, it was almost admirable. There was a murderous look in his enemy's eyes and Siren squeezed the weapon tighter. Electricity crackled up his hands.

"Tandle."

Just as Wren let go of the staff to save himself from fatal electrocution Rune groaned and regained consciousness. His whole body ached and just didn't feel right, as if each of his limbs had been pulled and stretched in all directions. His mouth tasted bitter, the chemical aftermath of adrenaline. Slowly he got to his feet, swaying from a wobbly balance, and then he heard a hideous thunder crack as a tandle spell was cast off to the side. Oh shit, the control centre! Wouldn't it kill-

Although Wren was no longer touching the conductive pole and magical amplifier he was still the closest target made out of metal and the electricity bounded straight towards him, leaping through the thin air to reach its goal. The control centre wasn't harmed because Wren took the full brunt of the attack by himself. He howled in pain.

It was only through the sheer force of will that Wren did not deactivate totally. Now the tables were turned, with Wren completely at the siren-type's mercy. Rune glared. If his staff hadn't been stolen he could have blown Siren away with whatever painful spell that came to mind. It really did look like their enemy was unable to take any more abuse. They were so close! Rune prepared a flaeli spell anyway, eager to finish this fight once and for all.

Demi spun around in her chair quickly when she heard her master cry out in pain. She'd been frantically trying to override Siren's commands to the life support system, her fingers a little blur on the buttons and the keys. After he had come back online that horrible four-letter password protection program had popped up as well, immune to all different kinds of cipher-cracking tricks. If Wren couldn't break through it then she had no hope for success, but she tried desperately anyway. What was the four letter word that held the secret to Siren's mind?

It was all in vain. Immediately after realising her master was in danger Demi abandoned the computer terminal and ran straight to Wren, hoping to assist him if she could. He was struggling to pick himself up from off of the ground, his synthetic nervous system completely frazzled from the surplus electricity. Siren stood tall before him, his gun in one hand and Rune's staff in the other. "You are pathetic." He said with deep satisfaction.

When Wren attempted to answer him Siren twisted the staff in his grip like a professional and smashed him across the mouth to shut him up. He didn't want to listen to protestations from a filthy layan sympathizer. Siren's expression was colder and darker now that his flesh had burnt away to nothing. "Silence." He commanded. "This is foolish. Accept that you have been replaced, Forren of Zelan."

"Master!" Demi cried, and for a moment she all but forgot Siren was there, skidding to a halt by Wren's side. She could do nothing for him but she still had to be there nonetheless.

That was the downfall of them all. Seeing a golden opportunity, and of course detecting Rune behind him about to blast him with a spell, Siren placed the esper's weapon on the floor with the utmost of care. His eyes were on the enemy kneeling before him.

"Demi." Wren said faintly, dealing with the full consequences of his injuries.

"Yes Master? What is it? What can I do to help?" Demi answered.

"Please… get away from me."

But it was too late. Siren had wanted Demi under his control ever since he had seen that cursed red mark on her face. He reached out and grabbed her by the back of the neck, much like how one would handle a kitten or puppy, hauling her up and pointing the barrel of his cannon inches from her face. She was very light so it didn't present a problem holding her that way, even though he was wounded.

"I'm afraid its now time for me to ask you all to surrender. No spells, no funny business if you know what is best for this girl." Siren announced, pulling on her hair roughly to tilt Demi's head back. The little android squeaked, but she was too afraid to move. "This means you, filthy layan spellcaster." He added, looking over his shoulder to Rune.

"Shit." Rune swore, abandoning the flaeli spell he had been preparing. If he had his staff he could have cast it instantaneously. Damn it, who the hell took hostages in a situation like this? Only somebody who had no choices left. The esper raised his hands. "Okay okay, just don't hurt her. I'm not gonna do anything. Don't hurt Demi."

Rune wanted to kill Siren. He wanted to smash the damned android into a million pieces and get revenge for all the stuff he had set in motion so far, but he would _not_ step over the body of a friend to do it. Rune cared about the android girl, so he gave it up. His mind raced to think of another solution, some way to separate her from him so he could attack. _Gods_ did he want to attack…

"I take it you layans care greatly for the house of Le Cille," Siren announced, taking a step away from Wren and carrying Demi with him, "of course. Just like the layans I know so well." He looked down at Wren who had yet to put his hands up. The defeated android had a stormy frown on his face.

"Will you not surrender?" He continued, pressing the barrel closer to Demi's neck.

Wren didn't say anything, but he had repaired himself up to the point where he could move competently again. Hesitantly, as if guarded by a snake, his hand slowly moved for the fallen staff again. He wasn't going to listen to threats.

"Master, please!" Demi gasped. "I'm scared!"

"Wren!" Rune shouted as well. "Put your gods damned hands up!"

This was amusing Siren. He smiled. "Do you not care? Perhaps you are orakian after all. Surrender."

The dark-haired android had thought of this very decision before on the evening of last night. The only reason he had lost Zelan to Siren was because of a split-second decision made upon their departure. When Siren had grabbed Demi that first time he had been forced to choose: Demi or Zelan. His first choice was illogical and regrettable. He did indeed care for his servant but Zelan's safety was paramount. It was worth more than her life, or his.

After all, Demi was replaceable. He had built her with his own two hands; he could do so again. This time he had the opportunity to think properly before he acted. Perhaps if he still had all of his emotions rather than mere memories he would feel more conflicted, but a memory was not nothing. It was something. As such, Wren felt something of a ghostly pang when he said those next words, but he did it anyway. He was resolute.

He shook his head and looked up at Siren intensely.

"No. I will not. Do your worst." He said.


	23. The Sacrifices to be Made

Rune could barely believe the words that had just come out of Wren's mouth. Had he just said what he thought he'd said? Maybe Rune had misheard. The esper had his hands up and his palms empty for the sake of Demi's life, which was currently in the cruel grasp of their enemy. If the choice were up to him he'd just attack Siren with all the power that he had, regardless of personal injury. Unfortunately, for a noble person, the value of another person's life was greater than that of their own.

Siren was holding Demi about two feet off the ground with his free hand, the barrel of his ancient cannon pressed against her neck in the other. Demi was taking the hostage situation rather well, considering, but that may be because this wasn't the first time she had been held to ransom before. Still, she did look rather scared. She was even more frightened now that Wren had refused to help her.

Because when Siren had told Wren to surrender or else he'd shoot Demi, he had said no. Rune knew that Wren had a slightly different grasp of emotions or none at all when compared to his other friends, but it was only then that the Lutz wondered if the android had a heart at all. Rune's blue eyes were cold and hard, but this time his glance was not directed at Siren. "You're not serious." He said to Wren in disbelief.

Wren was immune to Rune's glare. In his logical mind what he was doing was the most sensible course of action possible. Long ago, in another age, Wren had once been a colonel. He knew that sometimes causalities were just a part of war. The mission objective couldn't be jeopardized for the sake of a single unit. He was doing the right thing.

So why did he feel the need to repeatedly convince himself of that fact?

"I cannot surrender. Siren must be destroyed. I will not give Zelan to him. If this requires sacrifice then that must be so. I am sure Demi will agree with me on this matter." Wren replied to Rune as his hand got a hold of the discarded staff, under the watchful gaze of Siren. The older android had not carried out his word just yet. He had time, and he was truly interested in this callous betrayal.

Bristling, Rune fought hard to control his temper. He still couldn't believe it, but anger was a great convincer. "This isn't like losing a piece of equipment or property!" He declared. "This is Demi's life you're talking about! This is our friend! You can't just let her go because it inconveniences your damn mission! I swear Wren, if you don't put your hands up like I am doing Siren won't _have_ to shoot you; I'll hit you with a spell myself!"

"Now now, you don't have to do that. Let me save you a job. I'm perfectly capable of killing him myself." Siren smirked, mockingly being polite to the blue-haired esper. In the background he heard Whistler finally flip itself right side up again. He paid it no heed. "Thank you for the offer, however."

"Have you considered where the alternative will lead us? If we surrender we shall all be executed. I do not see the problem here." Wren said, trying to reason with the hard-headed Rune. It could be possible to lunge for Siren and slam the laconia stave down between Demi and his chest, separating them both so Wren could hit Siren with an immobilizing spark. He'd use his hyper jammer device to defeat the other android in a heartbeat, but once again the issue of disrupting Zelan's mainframe limited his options. It was so frustrating.

"We could think of something! It doesn't have to be this way!" Rune argued angrily, rapidly realising that trying to negotiate with an android who was sure of himself was like bashing his head against a brick wall.

"No… Rune, he's right." Came an unexpected, quiet voice. Demi wriggled a bit to lower her head so she could talk properly. There was a sad look in her pale green eyes. The talk darting around the room scared her to death but she could still see merit in her master's words. "Zelan is more important than I am. If Master Wren has the chance to save it then he should take that chance. I am just a servant. I'm replaceable." She said.

Gods, Wren wasn't the only one who was crazy. Demi had it too. Rune's brow furrowed as he tried to contain his exasperation. "You're not replaceable. There is no one thing about any of us that makes us more disposable than the other. Let's just all give it up, okay?"

Demi wanted to listen to him, but she had to ignore him instead. She harboured no delusions about her worth to the world, and to Wren. In an android's mind all decisions came down to a simple matter of values. Her value was quite high because of her administrative capabilities regarding Nurvus, and because Wren personally was quite fond of her in his own way. Were the choices different she knew her master would fight to the verge of death for her, but with Zelan lay the fates of all. Controlling Zelan meant that you controlled Algo, and with Siren here making threats that was not a risk either of them could take.

She truly believed this. Demi just wished Rune would be able to understand it all too. Siren's hand on the scruff of her clothing bit into her throat and the gun pressing up against her neck really frightened her. The android girl didn't want to become a martyr but she had no choice. Maybe, in some small, hopeful way, she wished that Wren would just disregard what was sensible and save her anyway.

Siren could just finish her off now and the other wren type right after, but he wanted to see what Wren was going to do, first. He had the staff in hand. All he needed to do was move. The very second he did, though, would be Demi's last. Behind him the locks keeping Zelan securely shut flashed green, unlocking themselves via a wireless command. This time the command had not come from him. "I don't have all night." He informed them. "If you're going to move then move."

Wren placed one hand on the ground to brace himself for when he leapt. He was hurt so badly that if he wasn't careful he might end up injuring himself more than Siren. He prepared to move, and then…

"That has always been the thing about Lieutenant Colonel Forren; he has a horrible habit of killing the people closest to him." Warren said, then added; "Usually due to his own pigheadedness."

Siren's two servants stepped into the main control area. They were not in the best of health, each worked over by battles of their own. Mieus had no physical injuries but her head hurt like hell, and Warren had a couple of stab wounds which thankfully didn't seem to restrict his moment all that much. They had both run to the bridge as soon as they were together again, worried for their master who had faced three enemies on his own. Good to see that he was still standing. They had come here just in time.

Maybe they had been eavesdropping just a little bit too, when they had come inside. The esper had his hands up and the android was on his knees, with Siren before him. Their master turned slightly to regard his two servants, manhandling Demi as he went. His fleshless face seemed pleased. "Good of you both to come. I was becoming shorthanded." He said, with his hands clearly full.

Mieus wrinkled her nose at him. Respectfully, of course. "Master, what happened to your _face_? It's all burned! You look frightening." She exclaimed, far more out of fascination than fear. She completely ignored the fact that Demi was in his arms. She no longer cared about her anymore. She tried to tell herself that she never did.

Struggling, Wren stood, taking Rune's staff with him. It was hard and painful to move, but he did it anyway. Siren turned back to his enemy while his allies casually walked over to stand behind him, on either side. How droll, Wren was so damaged that he had to lean against the staff like a tired old man. It was probably best to put him out of his misery before he fell over and embarrassed himself. "You can fight me and there is a slim chance that you may win. After that you must fight Warren and there is an even slighter chance that you may win. If you destroy him also then your final opponent will be Mieus. You will be far too damaged to continue." Siren assured him.

The outlook was indeed bleak. Demi turned her head to the side and closed her eyes. "Please stop it. This is just too cruel." She heard the sound of Rune's staff clattering to the floor. It was louder than she would have anticipated and she flinched instinctively. Strange. Demi never would have flinched at something so small in the past. Perhaps this was Siren's influence already worming its way into her.

But the important part was that her master had dropped his weapon. The small android girl opened her eyes and looked at him. The staff was at his feet and Wren was scrutinizing it intensely, as if he expected it to leap up and attack on its own. In truth, however, he was grappling with the profane concept of what he was about to do. With Siren's reinforcements there was no way he could resist. He slowly raised his hands.

"I surrender." He said, defeated.

"Very well." Siren replied with great relish. "Mieus and Warren, please subdue them. Have them bound and then take them away. Execute them later."

Rune felt the heat rise in his chest; the anger. The staff was _right there_, and he could do _so_ much damage, but Demi… argh! He ground his teeth in white hot fury when Mieus grabbed him. She wasn't rough but she was firm, and sort of touched him a little too oddly and sensually for it to be normal. Rune hardly noticed, the only thing that really registered with him was the cold metal pinch as shackles locked down around his wrists, forced behind his back. Mieus gave him an affectionate cuddle for being so obedient.

When Warren silently walked by to get to Wren the bloodstained glitter of a blade caught Rune's eye. It was a familiar sight. The brown-haired wren was carrying Chaz's sword and it was covered in blood. So was he; parts of Warren's golden armour painted into brass. A vision of Chaz and Rika and Raja and Hahn flashed into the Lutz's mind. "Hey! What the hell have you done with them?" He shouted, throwing himself forward a bit with his cry.

Mieus tsked and pulled him back again by the hair, getting a firm grasp on his long blue ponytail. Warren just stopped and looked inquisitively at him for a moment, oddly innocent, but then judged it wasn't in their best interests to answer and carried on to subdue Wren. All in all Wren didn't put up any fight. He just let Warren shackle him with dissociative ease.

There was nothing more that anybody could do now that they had lost. Wren had never believed that he had hope, but now, after all that had happened, something unnoticeable that he had once had strangely dissolved. He wasn't clear on what it was, only that it made it so much easier for him to bow his head and admit defeat.

He could break the shackles if he wanted to, but what would be the point? At least Warren was being gentle with him, pushing him back down to his knees on the floor. Wren's stabilizers were too damaged for him to be standing up unaided for long, and Warren didn't want to see the once-proud colonel lose all dignity before his death. "How did you want us to execute them, Master? What did you have in mind?" He asked, respectfully requesting further details.

Siren finally set Demi down on the floor, but kept a firm hand tight on her shoulder to prevent the girl from getting away. While on his knees Wren and Demi were at a near-equal height, and she could freely look into her master's eyes. He would not look back at her however, he blankly stared at a patch of scorched ground just off to his right. He could have been deactivated for all the resignation that he showed. "Master…" Demi whispered quietly.

The siren-type gave some serious thought to Warren's question. He'd been so busy in the control centre that he currently wasn't quite sure of the rest of Zelan's state. "What is the status of the other four layan targets that I assigned you both?" He questioned, smiling as he asked and desiring nothing less than a positive reply. The blood on his servant's hands spoke of absolute optimism.

Mieus didn't say anything. She certainly wasn't going to admit to her master that both of her targets had gotten away due to her own over-eagerness. All she did was lean against Rune as if he were some kind of a bench and snuggle up against his back, ignoring the; "Get off me you damned bitch!" comments made beneath her.

"They are out of the picture now. We don't have to worry about them again. Mieus and I made sure of that." Warren assured Siren, making sure to keep Mieus out of trouble. He flashed Siren a sincere grin. "The layans here in this room are the only ones left."

His master was pleased, but he only showed the slightest hint of that pleasure. From the very moment he'd awoken all his choices had been wise, as if he had been guided by the Great Light itself. He would continue on his course until every beating heart of the layan race were stilled. "You have done well. I am very proud of you. You may dispose of these two in any manner you see fit. Consider it your reward for services rendered. Be as creative as you want. Take as long as you want. I now have other matters to attend to."

Both androids got his very overt drift. Mieus practically glowed upon receiving the information and Warren took a few moments longer to think it through and then nodded obediently. "Alright, we will remove this filth from out of your sight. Come on, ol' buddy; let's get you stood up and out of here." He said to Siren, and then focussed on getting Wren up to haul him away. Wren obeyed like a sleepwalker, requiring some guidance and assistance but making most of the effort by himself.

The shackles bit unkindly into Rune's wrists as he fought to twist his arms out of them. It was no use, they were too tight. All he succeeded in doing was cause his wrists to bleed. "You've got to be joking. You think I'm going to let this woman torture me to death? That's not going to happen!" He yelled, but all that did was make Mieus giggle behind him. She pulled roughly on his hair again to shut him up.

Demi also animated herself and tried to pull away from Siren's grip, only managing one measly step before her captor yanked her back again. This was really happening. They were really going to kill Rune and Wren. "You cannot do this! You can't! Who will watch the system? Master! _Master_!" She cried, panicking as much as an android could.

Wren didn't even look at her. For his part he just stared at the floor as Warren gently led him away.

"No! No! This isn't right! Master Wren! Master Wreeeen!"

When they got to the door and the airlock opened, isolating the control centre from the rest of cold dead Zelan, Demi suddenly realised that this might be the last time she'd ever see her master alive again. Fear gripped her small frame. Desperately, at the last second she screamed; "_Faaaaaaatheeeerrrrr_!"

What Siren did next to her was almost kind. He believed in keeping just about any useful thing in the hopes that some day that use could be replicated. After all, most recycled androids were merely junk on legs, or wheels. Above Demi Siren took out the slave collar he had saved ever since awakening Mieus and snapped it smartly down around her neck. It was a great irony that the mother should suffer the same punishment as the daughter, but there was justice in that irony also.

He released her then but Demi did not escape. It took less than five seconds for the slave collar to take effect and she flopped onto the ground, her AI suppressed and her consciousness lost. Wren heard the thump and turned his head briefly to see what was going on behind him. He saw Demi on the floor, unconscious, but he only had a second to reflect on that before Warren shoved him into the airlock. He didn't feel anything. He never did.

The door closed behind them, leaving Rune alone with Siren and Mieus. That was not a position the esper really wanted to be in, especially with his hands trapped behind his back. There was no way he could direct his magic except for backwards. Well, maybe it wouldn't be such a bad thing to incinerate Mieus while she leant so soft yet cold behind him. Torture wasn't his thing, not even if it was performed by a seemingly beautiful woman. It might be some other guy's thing, but not his. "Will you get the hell off me, bitch?" He growled, trying to throw her off.

"He's really squirmy, isn't he?" Mieus said cheerfully, ignoring Rune's demands with a cheeky little smile. "What should I do with him? Is there any way we can shut him up before I kill him?" Already her mind was awhirl with all the many possibilities. Androids were not particularly creative life-forms, but where there was a will there was a way.

And Siren was quite practiced when it came to finding the correct way. He regarded Rune for a silent moment, dissecting the Lutz with his gaze, and then without taking his eyes away from him he made an adjustment or two to the setting of his handheld cannon, toning the power all the way down to the minimal output. "Stand him up nice and straight for me, Mieus," he ordered in a low tone, "but be sure to stand right behind him to protect yourself from harm."

Mieus grabbed Rune by the shoulder and wrenched him into an upright position, a quick move that would have made any chiropractor proud. She held him firmly by the upper arm as well, releasing his hair, sure that he would never get away. As Siren advanced on him Rune tossed his head in arrogant defiance. "Do you think a bastard esper like you can get rid of the Lutz? Don't make me laugh!" He laughed.

Siren looked at him peacefully. He wasn't angry, after all his team had already won. It was gratifying to watch his defeated foes cry out in anger and denial. He stared past the esper to Mieus. There was nothing but obedience and devotion in her pretty blue eyes. Siren pressed his cannon gently below Rune's collarbone, nearly over his heart. "I must admit I am not clear on what the Lutz is. In this case it does not matter. You will be quiet and still now, layan."

He fired. Using his cannon Siren cut a red, raw, shallow hole in the esper's body. It wasn't designed to kill him or even to mutilate him very badly; it was only a means of making Rune easier to handle. Rune uttered a noise as if he had been hit by a medium-sized thrown stone, sort of making a breathy 'uuuh' sound that didn't quite match the ferocity of the gunshot wound. He recoiled backwards but Mieus' body cushioned against him. When Siren stepped away and lowered his gun Mieus let go.

Rune fell and landed on his side; falling in the pitiful way that handcuffed people do. Small spatters of blood formed almost a crescent around Rune's chest, but thankfully the shot had mostly cauterized the wound so there was no chance that the esper would bleed to death. It merely hurt like all hell, and then some.

Mieus placed her hands on her hips and inspected her newly tamed toy. "If you wind up bleeding on me I'm going to be really upset, Mr. Cutie-Pie Layan Scum." She chimed pleasantly. "Ooh look, his face has gone all white!"

"I will give some oxygen back to Zelan. Wait for a while and then make sure he stays out of my sight. His heathen arrogance annoys me. Try to teach him some humility before you kill him, Mieus." Siren ordered before he turned away. He strode over to Demi and picked her up, holding her under one arm with absolutely no effort involved. Rune watched this happen from his own spot on the floor, the expression on his face a mixture of agony and hatred. His eyes kept watering from how much it hurt. Yes, that was right, it was only because it hurt so much. He wasn't crying, really.

Mieus crouched down beside him and fondly patted Rune just above his gunshot wound; possibly a little too firmly. He cringed but bit down hard on his cry before any moans or noises could slip out. She knew that they were going to get along together. They were going to get along _quite well_ together until the little man died.

"So then…" Mieus hummed sweetly, brushing aside her long red hair. "Have you ever thought about how you wanted to die, sweetie?"

†††

Siren walked through the corridors that ran through the storage cells, like arteries. He was becoming increasingly familiar with the place. It was almost beginning to feel like home. He had a lot on his mind, but most of it was revision over what had just happened on his space station and intense, in-depth planning over what was to come. This was only the beginning. A whole galaxy's worth of work had been dumped straight into his lap, and he loved providence for it.

The assault on Zelan was only a defensive manoeuvrer, barely even a dress-rehearsal for what _he_ had in mind. Siren saw this Algo, this future Algo far from his two thousand years in the past as an undiscovered country that required conquering. Saving. Both were true, from the layan scum that inhabited the lands. Motavia and Dezoris were infested with layans. He was sure of it. Nothing could convince him otherwise.

In time, very soon, Siren would take to the offensive. From this seat of power upon Zelan he could control _all_. He had Algo's very own life-support resting in his hands. The previous caretaker of Zelan had been an ignorant fool with no clear idea of the power he had just been sitting on. Siren was resolute that he would not let such a great fount of power go to waste.

Perhaps Siren wasn't entirely mad. He had seen the state his own race had been left in after a thousand years of heartless layan rule. Executed, locked away, or piled into scrap heaps and lonely cells where they spent an unchecked eternity in disuse. He'd seen the depth of pain and suffering Warren and Mieus had endured under the influence of layans and layan sympathizers. They were just a tiny sample group of the untold hundreds or thousands of androids discarded for what they were. For what they _dared_ to be.

Unlike Wren, Siren still kept his emotions intact. Most of the time not caring was merely a personal choice, no different to a palman who just didn't give a damn. But for this, however, Siren could care. One should always care for one's own race, especially when they were as suppressed as androids seemed to be. In the end they should all act together as one, and destroy the foe that had kept them shut away in the dark. Siren was willing to be their leader.

Zelan was only the beginning; the first step down a ladder which led to the planets below, and the glorious revolution. There was so much work to be done, so many servants to discover and bring back to life.

The android race would rise again, united against a common goal, and this time _they_ would be the masters.

A bright future awaited them all.

Siren opened the doors to an empty cell in block A and unceremoniously tossed Demi inside. With the slave collar in place she just hit the ground like a sack of potatoes and rolled a few times to come to rest on her stomach, right up against the cell's table. Rather ungraceful, but slight justice for Mieus' sake. Siren stood in the doorway and smiled at the little android's body in a sinister way.

He wasn't going to kill her. That would be too easy. That wouldn't be interesting at all.

"I will make you one of us." He said to Demi quietly, then stepped back and securely locked her inside. He walked on.

†††

Two pairs of footsteps echoed through the station's halls, sounding exactly the same. Warren was gently frogmarching Wren to their current destination, right now known only to him. He was slightly concerned over his captive, how Wren had so suddenly and dramatically gone from a defiant enemy to an obedient mute. The larger wren-type was still walking and moving with him, which meant he was not deactivated, but it was still strange.

It really didn't matter considering what Wren's fate was going to be, but Warren had a tendency to be concerned for any person that wound up under his care. Perhaps Wren was in shock from him and his comrade's defeat, only he had never seemed like the sort of android who would be balked by failure. He _had_ been a colonel in a pyrrhic war, after all. "Are you okay?" Warren asked softly, trying to coax out a reply or any indication that he could hear him.

Rather a stupid question to ask somebody about to die. Wren didn't answer him and allowed the long, awkward silence to stretch out before them much like the hallway was doing. Warren was perturbed by the silence only for about twenty seconds. He tried again in a different manner, trying empathy this time. Warren mimicked a sigh. "You know, I know exactly how you feel. It's hard to accept being condemned."

A thousand years ago their positions had been reversed, with Warren as the condemned and Wren the executioner. The android had kind of hoped that he could get a smile out of his old friend, even if it had to be a sardonic one. Instead, though, Wren slowed to a stop outside an empty research room and his hands shifted a little in their tight shackles. His voice was a flat monotone. "Please do not talk to me." He said coldly.

Warren seemed sad, looking like he had just been scolded for incompetence. "I-I'm sorry." He apologised. He remembered back when he had been slated for the firing squad he'd been a little testy to the guards, too. That thought didn't make him feel better as much as he hoped it would. This wasn't impersonal; this was entirely personal, well, as much as androids could be. Best to just be an impassive captor. He turned toward the research room's door.

"In here." The brown-haired android announced and hauled Wren into the room with him, pleased to see that it was nice, empty and the computer terminals were mostly dead. The room was large enough to move around in, and very quiet. This was exactly what he had been looking for. He instructed Wren to stand in front of the table with a general wave in that direction. Wren obeyed. There really wasn't anything else he could do.

"Don't even think about using any of your offensive units against me, because in this enclosed space you'll hurt yourself just as much as you'll hurt me. I'll deactivate you before you even get that far, so don't worry." Warren advised as he laid Chaz's bloodstained sword in a corner and then manually locked the doorway into the room closed. He walked up to Wren and stood in front of him, folding his arms.

Wren disliked the feeling of not being able to properly move his arms. It made things more difficult for his equalizers and all he could do was stand there, stand there in the presence of somebody he remembered hating so very much. It was like being helpless and no living creature enjoyed being held by a chain. "So what are you going to do to me?" He inquired, leaning slightly against the table behind him.

Warren thought about this for a bit. He wasn't experienced when it came to planning; that was more like Siren's department than his own. This was meant to be his reward for a job well done. He was not Siren. He'd have to think in a different manner to make this more… rewarding. "First I think I am going to knock you out. You're a very sophisticated piece of machinery, Forren. It'd be a huge shame to waste those parts of yours." He cracked his knuckles, spark energy beginning to flicker and leap from his hands. "After all, I'm sure you understand the importance of _reusing_ old parts."

There was a double-meaning to those words that Wren could not avoid. Warren was aware of the parts that had been stolen from him long after his death, and he suspected the correct person for the theft. If he did the same then it would be another form of vengeful justice. Wren's face remained neutral and he didn't say anything; he merely stared. There was nothing that needed to be said.

And there was no longer any expectation for him to say anything, either. Warren reassuringly placed a hand on his shoulder plate. "Let's try to talk after the procedure. I still have to think of a way to kill you and um… maybe you can help me with that because I don't have any ideas." He admitted as if he were apologetic of that fact.

Before Wren could ask what Warren meant by 'procedure' a huge electricity surplus bolted through the android's arm and surged straight into his system, knocking him out instantly. Sparks seldom failed to incapacitate, but further action needed to be taken to keep Wren unconscious for more than six minutes at the most. Warren caught Wren before he could fall to the floor and with some effort helped him onto the research table, forcefully dislocating his arms for a few seconds to get the shackles over to his front.

Androids weren't Warren's specialty. He was far more interested in living flesh and blood. However, he did know just enough about his own type series to properly deactivate one, and how to add and remove hardware. Mostly. It couldn't be _too_ difficult. The research table had wheels on it and wasn't bolted to the ground like others, sort of like a large gurney. He pushed it over to a dark computer terminal and turned it back on.

Using the extendable networking cable from behind Wren's audio sensor Warren connected it to the monitor and accessed the deactivated android's system BIOS. He didn't touch or tamper with anything on the screen because he might wreck something he couldn't fix by himself, but as long as his BIOS were being displayed Wren would remain unconscious. This function was in place to prevent androids from tampering with their own minds too much.

This could take a while, but if he treated it like a palman autopsy everything should be fine. His objective was to remove everything anyway; all the surplus parts that wouldn't kill him upon removal. The flare unit went first, then his barrier and spark generation hardware. The hyper-jammer was extracted quite easily but the burst rockets were almost a puzzle, something that almost took fifteen whole minutes to figure out.

Warren was a little stunned to find that Wren _hadn't_ been bluffing about his positron bolt unit, it was right there in his body cavity like a deadly bomb waiting to go off. It was a good thing Master Siren had bargained him into deactivating it, or else they could have all been blown to the moons. He removed the unit with great care and placed it with the others. It was possible for Warren to stop there and he could have done so while congratulating himself for a procedure well done.

But he did not stop there. Warren decided to take it two steps further. He cut the torn cables that were meant to connect to Wren's cannon so they could not be repaired, then quite roughly ripped out the plugs so the cables could not be replaced. If anything happened and Wren somehow got his hands on a gun again Warren didn't want to see him using it. If he couldn't, then Wren shouldn't. It was much better, much safer that way.

The final step seemed like the smallest, least dangerous thing, but it was like a butterfly flapping its wings another world away. Eventually, in the distant future, this final step would create a fearsome hurricane-storm. Warren erased all of Wren's connections to Zelan and slashed many of his networking capabilities, deleting his thousand-year member address registry save for one address; his own. That was about all he could do without consulting Siren for help.

Warren closed Wren up and switched off the monitor, disconnecting the android and allowing him to become conscious again. As Wren opened his eyes and slowly sat up on the laden research gurney Warren went and fetched Chaz's sword. Wren felt… emptier than usual. It was odd. All the software connections to his weaponry arsenal and programs were still there, but the hardware it was meant to connect to could not be found. All of it. Everything. They were all hardware not found.

Wren made a slightly pained noise, as if he had a headache. His hands were shackled in his lap and when he looked to the side he saw his missing parts and units; arranged into a neat little row like surgical tools. For a palman it would have felt like waking up after a mummification process and discovering all of their organs lined up in Canopic jars. Wren regarded the parts blankly. "… I see. I did not take everything from you, Warren. Not in this manner." He said with disinterest, knowing the other android was still there without having to look.

"You might as well have done. It doesn't feel too great having to use parts from a dozen different donors, you know. I don't feel the same anymore, but I can mostly accredit my prison sentence to that." Warren replied from where he was standing. He seemed a little reflective and bitter. "I _liked_ who I used to be, but now it feels like I have to start from scratch again. These parts you've kindly donated will help to make half a dozen other androids whole again. You can still be useful even when you're dead."

The way he said it made it sound like the donation had been entirely voluntary. The prison sentence hadn't just been his time in Paseo Maximum Security, but the past thousand years after his assigned death. For what Warren had done to his government and to Algo it still was not enough. Wren had never regretted botching that execution and keeping it under wraps; if he had to reprise that decision he would do it all over again. "You have deserved everything that came to you, Warren. You reaped what you have sown."

"You see, that's where you and I differ in opinion." Warren explained as he shook his head, happy to see that the other android was actively talking to him now. It was a relief to know that Wren hadn't gone off the deep end just yet. "I believe that nobody has the right to issue a punishment to somebody without understanding the depth of the punishment, first. There's not nearly enough empathy in the worlds. Not enough understanding, either."

"Do not accuse me of ignorance." Wren warned him. "I knew exactly what I was doing."

"You did not!" Warren exclaimed, raising his voice for the first time in Wren's presence. "I can tell you exactly what you were thinking! You felt betrayed and threatened because your old commander and friend switched sides and went rogue! You couldn't understand why I did it and so you came to the decision that if you couldn't understand my motivations you had to destroy me! You did what you did because my decision was vicariously your shame."

He raised Chaz's sword and swung it towards Wren's neck, but stopped it less than a centimetre away from the android's throat. Wren had hit upon one of the rawest nerves that Warren had. "I could think of the perfect way to punish you. I could just chop your head off clean and simple and then, you know, neglect to finish the job. I could leave your body here alone and forgotten for the next thousand years. I have experienced this punishment so I feel I have the right to repay it back to you."

Wren did not feel threatened, even with the sword at his throat. Warren had done some terrible things in the past but there was a method to his madness, so while he was known to bite and maul on occasion ninety nine percent of the time he was harmless. "I thought you were not revenge-oriented." Wren commented carefully, at the same time performing an inner diagnostic for the parts he had lost.

Warren lowered the sword with an ironic smile, calming down. "I'm not. I was just thinking out loud. Not everybody is as vengeful as you are. Besides, I wouldn't be doing my job properly. Master Siren ordered your death, not an eternity of punishment. Even if it were otherwise I still wouldn't do it. _Nobody_ deserves that kind of fate."

"I see." Wren said quietly. The news didn't make him feel any better or worse. He completed his inner diagnostic and the report was bleak. He had lost just about everything that wasn't related to self-preservation and nearly all networking and wireless function was lost. It was as if he had been turned into a useless palman, albeit one with superior strength and processing power. It was all gone.

"It's good to see that I'm not the only one who has changed." Warren continued, reflectively. "You really _have_ removed your emotions, haven't you? I know because if you hadn't we'd both be shouting at each other right now. You used to be really angry and grumpy, but you were the best friend I've ever had. 'Never was able to figure out how that worked."

"Does that matter anymore?" Wren asked without actually seeking an answer. That was far too long ago, long enough that he could almost forget the memory of those emotions if he didn't make an effort to maintain them. He stared at his hands bound in his lap. "… I could not endure the past millennia while still feeling things. I would have gone mad. Much like you did."

"I swear to you I'm not crazy. I don't feel crazy at all. The doctors and psychiatrists were wrong. You all just needed another good reason to lock me up, in case Colonel Finley wasn't enough." Warren replied grimly, defensively, slightly insecurely. "That in itself was an accident. I didn't mean to kill him. I am not a murderer. I am-"

"You _are_ a murderer." The response was so curt that it was like being hit by a whip. The memory of anger came back to Wren and he _wanted _to be angry, _tried_ to be angry, but it was still only a pale reflection of basic anger. Wren glared. "I am not another oblivious fool. I was there the day you killed Colonel Finley. You did not fall, and your aim was not jostled. You took calculated aim and fired. It may have been a spur of the moment decision but you wished for Colonel Finley to die."

"I didn't-"

"Lies. I was standing five feet from Finley when he was shot. I was splashed with his blood. I saw the rifleman who did it. It was you."

Warren was silent.

"You do not remember I was there?" Wren continued, his words smooth but unstoppable. His cool grey eyes bored into Warren's weak lies. "Or… perhaps you aimed for Finley because I was not a viable target; protected by my barrier shield?"

"No! You're wrong!" Warren cried, clearly upset. "I would never... _ever_ hurt a friend, even if we had fallen out in the past. Finley was the CO. I aimed for him."

His denial was also his confession. It was as if the situation had been reversed, only the shackles around Wren's wrists and the sword in Warren's hands spoke of who was the proper captor and captive. Wren couldn't have gotten this sort of information from him a thousand years ago. Warren's punishment had weakened him dramatically since then. "There you have it." He concluded at last.

There was a pregnant pause where the android in the golden armour just stared at him. Eventually Warren smiled. He appeared cheerful, as if a huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders. "Fair enough, then. That was a long time ago. Like you just said; does it matter anymore?" He gestured to Wren. "Stand up. You're coming with me. I just had a great idea on how to kill you."

The accusation had only affected Warren for a few short seconds. Wren couldn't understand why that was so. For all he knew about how much Warren hated to hurt people it just didn't make sense. Wordlessly he stood and the other android led him gently to the door, which opened faithfully after he disengaged the lock. Warren put his free hand on Wren's shoulder plate and pulled him closer a bit. "Unlike you, old friend, _I_ know how to let things go." He whispered softly by his audio sensor.

He took Wren by the arm and shoved. He was harmless now; he wouldn't be able to hurt a fly. Warren didn't believe in revenge, but he _did_ believe in duty.

Time to get that duty over and done with before he changed his mind.


	24. The Blood to be Repaid

Mieus had had a great idea on how to kill Rune, too. She'd asked the esper what kind of death he'd prefer but the only thing she could eventually get out of him was; "I'd like to die while I'm murdering you, you whore." That kind of talk made Mieus want to cram her elbow into his face but she refrained, as sweet as that thought seemed to be.

She had been thinking about what that other little palman had tried to do to her in the corridors of Zelan. That ice technique would have frozen her to the bones if she had any, and she could only imagine the kind of agony it could put a simple fleshling through. She wanted to see that kind of agony for herself, and with the guinea pig granted to her by her master there was no better time. Mieus waited for about ten minutes and amused herself by watching and listening to the way Rune gasped and shuddered, coping with his injury. His ripped wrists oozed blood.

"You know, you're not the first hurt palman I've ever seen. I've seen plenty more." Mieus said casually, resting her chin in her hand. She was sitting on Whistler. The little robot made an excellent stool. "There was a village a few years ago. Don't quite remember its name. Maybe it didn't even have one. Who knows? One day I got sick of the people living there and just killed them all."

Rune's frown deepened and he focussed all of his attention to how the blood lubricated his shackles and allowed his wrists greater movement. Mieus saw his stubbornness and decided to continue. "That was a lot of fun, but it wasn't as much fun as what I did to that girl with the horns, and her perverted friend." She smiled a long, catty smile. "They put up quite a fight but in the end they begged for death, just like the others."

A hiss escaped from Rune's lips, a quick exhalation that sounded like a warning. He knew that he was going to be tortured, but not in this way. Things like the gunshot wound in his chest were one matter, the knowledge that his friends had… that they were… It was just too cruel. Rune growled through gritted teeth. "Shut up. Just shut the hell up." He threatened.

Mieus was heaping lies upon somebody else's lies, but it was as good as truth to the bound esper. She had never actually won against Rika even though she had knocked out Hahn, but she truly believed that Warren had done the job for her. It never even popped into her mind that her partner might have stretched the truth himself. All that had no relevance. For all intents and purposes it was the truth.

"I can't tell you how the other two died, but I'm sure you saw the blood on my friend. Soon you will be the only one remaining; the last left alive. You really failed terribly but what did you expect with Master Siren? He is perfect. You should consider yourself lucky that he's allowing you to live as long as you are." After Mieus had finished speaking Whistler beeper its own little affirmation. She stood up from the robot's head and walked over to Rune. "Tell me honey, have you ever been to Dezoris?" She asked.

Her gloved hand wound a fist lightly in the small of his back, gathering up a handful of his white robes. She lifted the wounded esper half an inch off the ground, strands of blue hair loose from his ponytail falling into his face. All he could move were his legs, and a fat lot of good they could do while weak and shaky from his injury. "I was born there," Rune coughed, "'long time ago. Dezoris is my homeland."

Looking down on him Mieus smiled kindly, almost as if she cared. In truth, she smiled at Rune like a child who was bored of watching ants walk by and was ready to take out the magnifying glass on a hot sunny day. It had been enough time and they were ready to go. "Well then, what do you say we take you all the way home? I haven't been off this space station for so long, it'll be a real treat for the both of us." She promised.

Did he have a choice? Nope. Mieus hauled him to his feet using only one arm, and with an awesome strength usually hidden by her feminine frame she slung him effortlessly over her shoulder. Rune grunted as his stomach collided with the android girl's uncovered collarbone. He found himself supremely grateful that his wound wasn't pressing up against anything painful.

She carried Rune out of the central control area of Zelan and down through the hallways, heading towards the spaceship docks. Her master had said that she could be as creative as she wanted and take as long as she wanted, so surely he wouldn't mind her borrowing a small spaceship for a few short hours? She knew how to fly a ship, almost any android did, and navigational information on how to get to Dezoris should be stored in the ship's memory. It would be fine.

Rune felt like a great big tote bag being carried around like this. From his vantage point he could see an image of the hallway passing behind them, bouncing a bit as Mieus carried him, and an excellent view of the girl's backside, not that he was looking. They passed a locked research room on the way to the docks and the Lutz could have sworn he heard shouting going on upon the other side, but that could have just been his mind playing tricks on him due to the pain.

"Don't worry, I won't drop you. I'm pretty strong." Mieus reassured him brightly to keep Rune at ease, and also to force back the silence that Zelan wished to draw around them, pulling tight like a black-bagged hood. Mieus' comfort was that her member address list was still full, connected to people she could not see or hear, but still close by.

"You'd have to be to walk around like you do and not have lower back problems." Rune muttered sourly, slowly getting used to the pain. Pain was like extremely hot water, at first it was scalding and unbearable but if one endured, toughed it out, slowly and gradually the pain would plateau. One could live on that plateau, even if it was barren and bleached by the sun. There was no choice.

Mieus chuckled. "I've been told they're my very best feature!" She exclaimed saucily as they reached their destination. The gates to the docks opened wide for them and Rune became aware of a deepening of volume in the space around them, a hollowness that accompanied people entering a wide, echoing chamber. Solid metal flooring became mere grating. Rune felt the meagre content of his stomach roll over in protest.

The docks, and after that, punishment.

From Rune's state of mind and the way he was slung over his captor's shoulder the Lutz couldn't make out the one thing that would have given him slight, fleeting hope. He couldn't twist himself the right way to look, even if it was there. Or not there, as was the point.

The largest ship in the hangar was missing. The Landale which had occupied the far dock from the gate was missing, but Mieus did not take any great notice of this because she did not realise the importance. The android girl gazed at the many different shapes in the hangar. They were all so unique, as if they had come from half a dozen locations all over Algo, from different times. Mieus stopped and stared for a few minutes, one finger extended and pointing at the ships as she thought.

In the end the ship that she selected was the Myau Eighteen. She dragged Rune aboard and dumped him across a long couch behind the pilot's seat, constructing an elaborate series of bindings using the seat belts along the bench. When her hands came close to his face the esper had the ferocious urge to bite her like a rabid dog and not let go, but it would not make a difference anyway. Biting into synthetic flesh and metal skeleton might hurt his teeth and taste foul.

He did it anyway. Mieus flinched and tried to pull her hand away but Rune refused to release her. Her claw gloves mostly protected her from the bite but an incisor bit down deep into her skin, leaving a mark. Rune had such a determined look upon his face as he bit her, trying to shake herself free. Mieus licked her lips slightly and came forward to lean over the magician, kneeing him sharply in a place most personal and private.

Rune had to let go of Mieus' hand to open his mouth and moan, curling in on himself as much as the binding would allow. Pleased, Mieus raised her hand up and kissed the knuckle where it stung, then moved on to other matters of greater importance.

He'd tasted blood when he had bitten into Mieus' hand, but it was not her own. Rune hadn't been able to bite through the skin. He had no way of knowing that he was tasting Hahn's dried blood, left there when she had beaten the ever loving hell out of him. Rune went still. There was nothing left to do but wait. Wait and watch and listen.

While Mieus busied herself with the ship's computer and getting it ready to go Rune had time to think very seriously about what to do, and make sure his balls hadn't been displaced by the girl's knee. The situation was very basic. This woman was going to take him to Dezoris and execute him. He was wounded and tied up, unable to escape. All his friends were either captured or dead. His eyes watered over how much he ached, _not_ because of that thought. If anybody was going to save him it would have to be himself.

"Okay, I think we're ready to go. Looks like somebody's been using this spaceship pretty recently. Sorry for keeping you waiting." Mieus announced apologetically as she settled down into the pilot's seat with quite a degree of grace. Rune didn't answer her right away; he was too busy chewing his lip and thinking.

When he did reply it was in a rough voice cracked with pain. "Fuck you." He said flatly as the ship's doors closed and the vehicle rumbled from the warming engines. Their pilot was pressing buttons like a child who had discovered a fascinating new toy.

Her laugh was like tinkling chimes, beautiful but cold. She leaned to the side of the pilot's chair in order to steal a quick peek at him, trussed up like an animal. "Unfortunately that's not part of the plan." Mieus smiled and waved the back of a hand dismissively at him. "You are seriously not my type."

Rune didn't say anything as the Myau Eighteen pulled away from the dock and confidently rolled on over to Zelan's main runway. In the corner of the cockpit, just on the edge of Rune's vision laid the empty spacesuit he had worn while exploring Azura. Sprawled there it looked like the empty shell casing of a cocoon. Rune's head throbbed as his body tried to get used to the higher oxygen content in the air. He had only just gotten used to the atmosphere on Zelan and the atmosphere on the spaceship was completely self-contained.

His head was killing him, but eventually he'd feel all the better for it. It was like a painful high. The Myau Eighteen blasted away from Zelan and then for the next hour or so Rune lay perfectly silent, perfectly still. He was as good as luggage, or probably could have been asleep, but if Mieus had turned around at any time during the beginning of their flight she would have met Rune's glare, burning into the back of her chair.

As an esper who focussed on extending the limitations of the mind, Rune prided himself on being able to correctly judge a person only minutes after meeting them. It was how he had allowed himself to become close to Alys, and it was also how he quickly realised the hero Chaz Ashley was going to be long before he became it. It was easy for an esper to judge the shape of a person's soul. All people, all races, and even some people like Wren and Demi… and Siren. He never would have known Siren was sleeping in that cryogenic chamber if he didn't have something of a soul. Crazy and unnerving to admit, but true.

Mieus wasn't like that. As Siren could become invisible to people's outward senses, Mieus was completely invisible to Rune's inner eye. If Rune could simultaneously close his eyes and block out his ears the girl would just vanish from his existential world. No strong, good spirit like Chaz and his friends. No cold, cruel spirit like Siren now so far away. Not even the flat, utterly neutral plane which coloured Wren's slight of spirit. Nothing.

Suddenly Rune understood.

He shifted a bit to try and find himself a more comfortable position. It was difficult with such a restricted range of movement. He smiled as a taut muscle in his back finally got the relief that it cried out for. "Hey baby," Rune spoke up, breaking the hour long silence in the cockpit, "I just realised what your problem is, why you have to let everybody know just how much of a bitch you are."

Mieus didn't turn around. She was too busy manually updating their navigational route. Rune could see brief flashes of the girl's fire-red hair behind the chair as she leant over to adjust the controls. Her voice was conversational. "So what's that, sweetie? Why don't you tell me?" She asked.

He had to think for a second before he could continue. Rune considered the consequences of what speaking his mind would be. Mieus had his life in her hands and if he pissed her off she could just end it for him, then and there. He had a feeling it wouldn't be painless, either. However, in a matter of hours or the time it took to get to Dezoris he would be dead anyway. What did he have to lose? The chance to be saved, perhaps, but that chance was slim to none as it was.

In the end Rune was Rune. He spoke his mind, smiling wickedly as he did so. He _wanted _a confrontation. Best to leave the world with his middle finger firmly in the air. "I think you're like a creative parrot, something that basically recreates past experiences into a workable persona. I don't know what's happened to you in your pathetic little life to make you who you are, but you're nothing like Wren and you're nothing like Demi. You're just a reactive learning program in a pretty shell, nothing more."

He waited for a response. Mieus replied after some moments of thought, or processing. Outwardly she still sounded casual, but Rune could detect a bare hint of strain. "What're you saying?"

"I'm saying," Rune simplified, "that you don't have a soul."

Mieus clicked on the autopilot and immediately rose, turning around sharply. There was fury in her eyes, in the intensity of her posture. Rune did not recoil away from her; he merely lay there looking up at the android smugly. What he had said was more or less what her grandfather used to say. She supposed it made sense, what with them both being part of the same layan faction. "Did you and he talk about me while I was sleeping?" She accused quietly, restraining herself.

Rune didn't know who 'he' was but he could tell that he had his foot into the doorway of Mieus' phoney mind. "You're an incomplete android, whether by somebody making a mistake when they built you or they just didn't do it properly. You haven't got a soul. You're not sentient. You're not alive." The magician sighed and rolled his eyes. "To think that I'm going to be killed by some pointless thing. I guess you won the irony battle, baby."

"And how can you be sure of that?" Mieus snapped, raising a fist. He had made her angry now, which proved that this was working. Rune wasn't sure where he was going with this; all he knew was that he wanted to hurt Mieus as much as he could. Wounded and with his hands tied this was the best he could do. The girl laughed. "You can't prove it. You can say whatever you like but you can't back it up with evidence. You can't show me my lack of a soul. Grandfather couldn't either; you just want me to believe what you do on faith alone."

"If you believe on faith alone that you don't have a soul, then you have a soul capable of experiencing faith. What you have is the reverse; an infinite loop echoing down upon itself into the darkness. Maybe your soul's down there, but I don't give a fuck. All I'm saying is that I don't have to prove it because I _know_ you already know. You know."

The corner of Mieus' mouth quirked up a bit in amusement. "Ah, but soon we'll be on Dezoris and I can kill you. When you're dead you will disappear and _I'll_ still be here. I'll still be alive. I think that proves my existence rather well, don't you think?"

For a simple learning program with breasts Mieus was a better debater than Rune would have given her credit for. However, Rune was the Lutz. His predecessors had eaten simple conundrums like this for breakfast. "That's all well and good but who the hell are you planning to prove it to? Yourself? Any computer can tell itself that it's alive over and over again but that doesn't make it true."

Mieus was gobsmacked. Her arms were trembling. Were she a palman teenager she could have stormed off and ran all the way up to her room, slamming the door behind her. Demi would have told Rune that in the past she'd done it anyway. Actually… she looked like she was about to burst into angry tears. "I think," she said slowly, walking up to where Rune lay, "… that you need to shut your filthy layan mouth now."

She pulled Rune's black gloves from his hands, balled them up together, and then roughly crammed them in his mouth. They tasted like sour sweat and smoke. Rune took the small assault like a peaceful mystic. It didn't matter to him; he had gotten what he wanted.

Siren had told Mieus to teach Rune some humility, but nobody could do that save for the Great Light itself. Rune had a way of radiating arrogance even while wounded, tied up, and with a pair of gloves stuffed in his mouth. Mieus frowned. "We'll be on Dezoris soon. Keep your trap shut until then."

Rune obeyed with a smile.

†††

Warren took Wren to Motavia for one excuse, one reason. After a thousand years he was lonely and wanted to catch a glimpse of home again.

Technically Palma was his home and not Motavia, but because Palma was merely an asteroid belt and he had spent slightly more time in Kueri than in Albion it did not matter to him very much. After Wren had been stripped of his spare parts Warren led him through the very same path Mieus had carried Rune some time earlier, all the way to the spaceship docks. He was still carrying Chaz's sword with him but it held no real function anyway; Wren would have continued to be led quietly whether his captor was armed or not.

Together they walked to the docks and picked out a spaceship that hitherto had not been used for many years, one that Warren initially chose because it appeared incredibly simple to fly. He'd never flown a spaceship before, so the knowledge inside his databanks was entirely theory-based. It was smallish and friendly-looking; when they got a bit closer Warren could see the name 'Rappy Mk III' emblazoned on the hull. He wasn't picky. If it could fly that was good enough for him.

He guided Wren inside and took him to the cockpit, pushing him down into the co-pilot's chair. To prevent him from reaching the controls Warren took out a second pair of shackles and attached one cuff to the chain between Wren's wrists, then bolted the other cuff to the support beneath the chair's armrest. Like this Wren could not lift his wrists any further than three inches from the chair. The only way to get around that was to rip the chair out of the floor or destroy the shackles themselves.

Warren sat down in the pilot's chair beside Wren. It was a good idea that he and Mieus had raided the security storage room before rushing to the aid of their master. It had been Mieus' idea, but they would not have been able to restrain the layans without them. The android looked over the unfamiliar controls like a person about to put together a pile of jumbled jigsaw pieces. With that same wary enthusiasm Warren got to work.

Wren could have helped him, or said anything in order to help him but he didn't. He didn't say a word. He was just luggage to be dumped upon Motavia when the correct time came. Besides, Warren may be a little oblivious when compared to regular wren-types but he always got there in the end. This expectation was eventually proven when the Rappy Mk III disengaged from its dock and made the slow trundle to Zelan's main runway. Warren may be clueless most of the time, but he was a _very_ fast learner nonetheless.

Blankness was Wren's usual facial expression. Everybody around him was more than used to that by now. However, since he'd been captured Wren's helplessness had led him all the way towards blankness and indifference and _beyond_ it, to some small, lonely place where there was only room for one. Before when addressed or whenever his name was spoken aloud you could be sure that Wren would turn that blankness and look directly at the speaker; now that prospect didn't seem so likely anymore.

His eyes were almost glazed; looking at nothing. It was like he had become a stringless puppet. After the ship blasted off into open space Warren kept checking back on his old friend for only a second or two, just to see if he had moved or his posture had shifted somewhat. It made the trip feel very uncomfortable, especially to the android who was supposed to be in charge of things and hated not being able to fix everything.

Stars filled the windscreen of the spaceship and Zelan was just a shrinking blob behind them. The only sound was the hum of the machines at work. This was the very last chance they would have to talk before the execution on Motavia. Warren felt… he wasn't sure, _responsible_ for Wren feeling so defeated. He had never wanted to hurt his friend, even now, he was… it was just in the cards. He couldn't let him go like Chaz and Rika, either.

"Hey… cheer up, okay?" Warren said, momentarily looking away from the flight path to regard his captive with a hopeful smile. He clapped a hand on Wren's shoulder plate. "I'm sorry about blowing up at you earlier on Zelan. I was just upset over losing my life. If you want to talk about anything that's bothering you I'm completely free until we reach Motavia. I'll listen. I don't mind."

Okay, so maybe that sounded like the most absurd thing ever considering the circumstances. Neither of them had ever heard of a sympathetic captor and executioner before. It was as if Wren hadn't heard him anyway, or he was the master of ignoring people. Wren was not capable of feeling anything and that was his entire problem right there; the one thing that had shielded him from madness in the past was driving him there right now, with a powerful hand.

His friends were dead and Demi had been captured. Siren had taken his place. All his parts were removed, rendering him useless. He was to be killed by his oldest ex-friend long thought dead. His mind wasn't sure how to take in all that information without the aid of emotion. He knew that he needed to feel something but he couldn't; he really couldn't. It was distressing. It was so distressing that all he could do was withdraw from the world to protect himself from harm. That was the only logical solution.

Surprisingly enough, Warren had seen struggles like this a very long time ago during the war, in androids that had rapidly gone mad. It was uncommon because androids that had willingly given up their emotions were rare, but it gave Warren cause to worry. If Wren wouldn't speak then he would just have to do it for him. "I bet you miss your emotions right now. I would. Everybody needs to have the chance to grieve. You've lost a lot, it's too bad you don't have the time to recreate your emotion data."

No response. Wren stared at his hands.

"When somebody like us deletes their emotion data it's nearly impossible to recreate it again without a fresh dubbing or a donor. Fully functional emotion data and emotional stimulus are like two halves of a zipper coming together, creating believable reactive behaviour. What you have done to yourself is that you've smoothed one side of the zipper to a perfect flatness that cannot combine with encountered stimulus. The commands telling you to be sad or angry are there; you just can't process it properly."

"And it's been a thousand years since we were created. Our donor is long dead by now. Frankly I feel sorry for you. All simulated chemicals in the android brain are merely numerical data designed to react in the same way. Palmans secrete things called neurotransmitters that are just ones and zeroes to us. One of the more notable neurotransmitters is called endorphin. They bond with selective receptors in the brain and spinal column, the same kind of receptors that combine with morphine, methadone and high concentrations of 'mate serum. It's the basic building block that creates 'happy'."

He may as well have been talking to himself for all the reaction he was getting out of his friend. Still, it was better than the awkward silence and Warren had a feeling Wren _was_ listening to him. He just had to have faith that it was making a difference.

"The patterns that dart across our positronic brains, all our thought, can be reduced to a simple multitude of calculated numbers. Its correlation equations are entered into a flat matrix. Parameters that recreate the polypeptide endorphin are inserted into our brains; this is the most basic form of a simulated adrenergic system, stuff like disinhibition of the dopamine pathways; dopamine, a catecholamine hormone, being a precursor to adrenaline and nonadrenaline…"

Slowly, agonizingly slowly, Wren turned his head to look at his friend ramble. Warren probably wasn't aware that he was doing it, but give the major a topic that could connect to his branch of interests and he could talk all night long. The android had one hand on the steering wheel, the other folded behind his head as he leaned against the back of the chair. Chaz's sword was stashed somewhere beneath the control panel.

It was possible for Wren to rip the arm off his chair and free his bound hands, then he could have dove to the side and throttled Warren into deactivation with the chain between his wrists. There didn't seem much point, he supposed. Anyway, it would take up too much energy and the lethargy that had come down over his mind was a part of his unexpressed grief. He half-listened, instead.

"… along with these specialised hormone parameters we have thirty different kinds of endocrine model sensors. These self-preservation functions also make pretty good parameters. They're all installed in our cores and working perfectly well, but the software is incomplete. It gives us an artificial template for emotions and the _ability_ to bear emotions, but designing feeling; a _soul_ is impossible. Science can't make affect, but a donor can. Technology will never in a million years be able to recreate the mystery that occurs in a natural palman mind, hence the need for donors to provide us with affect, affection; to be affected by the world around us."

Was he trying to rub it in or something? In the few moments before Warren could start blabbing again Wren said in an extremely quiet voice; "… you could talk underwater, major…"

Startled, the major lost his train of thought and hesitated. "Ah, thank goodness you can still hear me." He said. Funny that he should mention underwater, what with the plan he already had in mind. It was as if he already knew, but that was impossible. Warren thought for a moment then added; "I wish I could help you. It's not fair that you don't get to grieve."

_I could tell him, _Warren thought_, that none of his friends are dead; that I let them escape. I should tell him. But…even if I don't wish for him to suffer that is what my master Siren desires. Besides, the deaths of his friends are only a part of his grievances. I know Forren well. He is thinking of his replacement; his friends are only an afterthought. He is thinking of his loss of power, of control. It's all selfishness…_

For five minutes nobody said a word, but it was obvious that both wren-types were deep in their own thoughts. Perhaps Wren really _was_ beginning to regret deleting his emotions all those years ago. He might not have gone mad with loneliness, no, maybe not with Demi around. That was thirty percent of the reason why he had created her in the first place, other than to replace Nurvus' destroyed AI. Her affect had grown rapidly since her dubbing and she had been such a wonderful little girl. Just about every aspect of her personality were traits that he was unable to display.

It was hard to believe that her donor was such a different, yet frighteningly similar person. And the other donor? Well, Wren wasn't going to live for much longer. She wouldn't have to know about what he had sacrificed to make her smile. "What will happen to my servant?" He asked the other android, needing to know.

Warren wasn't sure himself, but he could make a pretty good educated guess. He was beginning to get a proper idea of the shape of Siren's mind. It was so strong, that was all he could be sure of, but he knew that Siren was capable of great kindness along with great cruelty. If you did as you were told, if you followed Siren's way then everything would be fine. "That depends. He might have already killed her, or is planning to kill her. He might convince her to join our side. I don't know." He minimised the navigation window and glanced at his friend. "I heard her screaming 'father' at you as we left. Are you really…?"

"That is a matter of opinion." Wren said quietly. "I prefer she call me master. It took five years to weed out that undesirable trait, and she reverted momentarily."

"Ah…" Warren said slowly, not really knowing how else to respond. So much had happened in the past thousand years, and killing Wren would close off a huge chunk of it forever. So many questions to be left unsaid. "Forren?"

"Yes?" Wren asked dully.

"I don't want things to end this way." The golden android blurted out, like an afterthought he wouldn't dare say if he dwelled on it for too long. He shook his head. "Not like this. I don't want you to die without getting some kind of forgiveness from you. I know you hate me because I betrayed the world, but don't you want to put all this bitterness behind us? If you can forgive me for joining the rebels and betraying the government then I think I can forgive you for killing me and leaving me to suffer for a thousand years."

"You wish to wipe the slate clean?" Wren questioned in monotone. Had he any emotion there would have been sarcasm in his voice.

"Yeah, I do. It just seems so pointless to nurse a grudge from such a long time ago." Warren admitted, sighing. "Please forgive me for being a traitor. I was only doing what I thought was right."

A bit of life came back into Wren's body and he finally started to focus properly on the conversation. He frowned, regarding Warren with distaste. "I cannot do that." He said.

"What? Why?" The other android seemed surprised.

"When I was young I swore to myself that I would never forgive you for the disservice that you rendered to Motavia. I do not see any reason to retract that pledge now. I do not seek forgiveness simply because I am going to die. I don't need your forgiveness. Keep it to yourself." Wren remarked icily, maintaining perfect eye contact with the other android while he dashed Warren's meagre hopes. It would have felt really good in a cruel sort of way, under other circumstances.

Warren's face fell. "Please? This is really important to me."

"I honestly do not care."

"I used to be your commander. You used to salute me and call me 'sir'!"

"And I was yours. You did likewise." Wren retaliated simply.

The major turned back to the business of flying the ship, defeated. "Touché." He admitted sadly, like a kicked puppy. It was probably too much to hope for, getting through to a person who had been as solid as a rock for his entire life and as stubborn as a mule back when there had been a war to be fought. "Listen… I guess it can't be changed. I don't mind it, but I forgive you anyway. For everything. You were angry. I understand."

Another long silence, then; "… How long until landfall?"

"There will be no landfall, but we will reach Motavia in two to three hours. You can deactivate yourself if you want, Forren. I'll wake you up again once we get there." He kindly offered.

There certainly seemed like nothing else to do while he was chained to this co-pilot's chair. After all that had happened it was distressing to dwell on the past and rather pointless to think on the future, as short as it was going to be. Wren didn't want to look at Warren or talk to him if he could help it, so he took the easy route instead. He shut himself down into standby mode and his consciousness went to sleep, allowing the minutes to tick by like lightning. It looked as if he were authentically asleep.

"You really _are_ an idiot." Warren said with a contemplative smile, like a parent whose child had fallen asleep in the back of the vehicle. "'Wish I could just kill you while you've shut down. 'Wish I didn't care about you so much…"

Over the course of three hours the Rappy Mk III sailed across space and into the oxygenated atmosphere of Motavia, descending smoothly like a well-made kite upon a dying breeze. The last time the ship's pilot had seen the curvature of the farming planet it had been flavoured with rich swirls of emerald green. There were still patches of green on the planet but they were miniscule in comparison; small blotches of mould upon the browns and oranges, blues and whites. Motavia had totally dried up. Impossible…

He knew Motavia had once been a desert planet but he had never seen it this way before with his own eyes. All that hard work lost. Could there possibly be _people_ upon the surface? This was what happens when you give layans the reins of control. This was all the layans' fault.

He stopped himself. That thought had been… well, it was his of course but it had come out of nowhere, as if the thought had been implanted into his head. It momentarily baffled him but he pushed it away in lieu of more important matters. Even though Motavia was a dried-up husk of its former self it was still astoundingly beautiful from way up there in space. Warren guided the Rappy to a huge patch of deep blue ocean at the very edge of the world. At least there was still water; that was a plus.

Stabilizing thrusters fired as the Rappy's speed rapidly decreased, coming to a hovering standstill five hundred metres from the surface of the waves. Spray splashed up and turned to white foam as the superheated air spiralled down into it. Warren locked the autopilot into place, rose, and opened the emergency exit on the side of the cockpit and for a moment or two stood there in silence as he experienced the crisp sea air. It reminded him of the view from Kueri. Below them and in the distance he could hear gulls crying and screaming in the air.

There was a fierce wind blowing right now. Warren took out the key for the secondary pair of cuffs and walked over to his captive, freeing Wren from his attachment to the chair. Finally, Warren gently shook Wren until the larger android reactivated and glanced up at him. "Good morning," Warren smiled, "it is nine forty five, Motavia Standard Time. Get up now, it's time."

"What is the manner of this execution?" Wren asked, rising from the seat after realising he was no longer trapped there. Warren absentmindedly helped him up, knowing how hard it was with bound hands.

"Come over here, I'll show you." Came the mysterious reply, and he gently led Wren over to the emergency exit. Together they looked out over the vast expanse of blue. The view muted Wren, for he could put two and two together quite easily. It wasn't necessarily a neat and airtight way of killing somebody, but as an android it was sure to be effective. The ocean, water, a sheer drop; death.

"I'm going to push you into the water, Forren. If the shock doesn't kill you the water seeping into your circuitry will. If you wind up more waterproof than I expected then the ocean pressure will crush you into scrap metal. Be thankful that you don't have to breathe. You won't drown, not in any literal sense." He grabbed Wren by the shoulder and pushed him forward, not enough to shove him off the ship but to force him to look down. The major smiled. "I'm no robotics technician, but I think that maybe even smacking into the water itself at the right angle might be enough to kill you." He lowered his tone until it was almost a whisper. "I hope you can swim…"

Because Wren did not have his emotions he was not afraid. Still, he did not like the look of the waves one bit. Warren pulled him back into safety and spun him around carefully, so they were face to face again. "You are wrong, major. About Siren. About everything. You are merely recreating the same mistakes all over again."

"Well, it's better than being dead." Warren commented offhandedly as he procured the key for the final set of handcuffs. He began to unlock the shackles; much to Wren's surprise. "I'm going to give you a chance to swim. If you think you can manage that land is bound to be around here somewhere. Just don't be too hopeful."

"You do not think I will attack you the very moment my hands are free?"

"You might find this hard to believe, but I still trust you."

The very moment the shackles came off Warren shoved him back to the exit, half spinning him around, but Wren had plans of his own and used the back of his free arm to throw Warren off him, hearing a metallic thump as the smaller android backed against the pilot's seat. He was an idiot to trust him. What kind of person wouldn't fight back when their very life was on the line?

The rebellion didn't last for long. As soon as Wren advanced on his enemy and Warren recovered from the attack something hard and incredibly fast smashed into the side of Wren's jaw, nearly fracturing it if it had not been reinforced with metal. The momentum caused Wren to stagger backwards, grasping at his mouth, in the direction of the exit and the sea. Gusts of wind whipped his hair about wildly and Warren moved to catch up with him, dropping Chaz's sword onto the ground. It had a steady, heavy butt and grip; not just a pretty blade.

The edge of Wren's boot went too far and caught nothing but air. He stumbled and would have fallen off the ship due to his own actions if he hadn't shot his arms out and grabbed onto the edges of the exit for dear life. Immediately he was in a very delicate situation, augmented when Warren crept over to the edge to look down at him. It seemed like he was unsure or even frightened, but at the same time the warren-type appeared to be calm, somehow at peace. "I thought you said you trusted me!" Wren cried, having to shout over the wind and the rumbling engines.

"I do, but that doesn't mean I'm going to let you get the better of me!" Warren shouted back, reaching to one of Wren's hands in order to pull him back into the safety of the ship. His hand enclosed over Wren's wrists but then he paused, stopping himself. What the hell was he doing? This wasn't what Master Siren wanted. Warren seemed to consider his options, and then he let his grip on Wren go.

Wren had expected as much. This was it. This was the end. "If you have the chance, please save Demi." He implored.

His words were lost in the wind and the engines. Warren came forward and planted a boot firmly on Wren's ruined chest plate. The other android didn't protest. It was like looking at himself a thousand years in the past, minutes before the execution. This must be how it felt to be the one with the choice; the decision. It felt scary, yet good. He could get drunk on this feeling, he thought.

"This will make us even." Warren declared, for a moment as convinced of himself as Siren was.

He kicked with all the force he could muster. Wren could not maintain the meagre grip he held. He fell.

On his back he was airborne. The wind made ribbony whistling noises as it passed by him and the spaceship dropped away, but losing sight of that was the least of his worries. Five hundred meters did not give him a lot of time to think of… to think of…

Wren nearly locked down into emergency hibernation when he hit the water. The shock was so great that it was like slamming into a concrete floor. Then, after that the world just closed all around him and grew heavy, deep, silent and cold. The water rushed in from every direction and pulled him under, dragging him to the sea floor. Wren did not resurface; he was far too heavy for that. He sunk like a stone.

There was a time, between disappearing beneath the waves and the dark nothingness afterwards, where Wren was briefly conscious of his surroundings. It was strange down there, underwater, similar to deep space. Wren was utterly weightless and it was a supreme effort to move his limbs, but above him the reflection of the sun forged a bright, beautiful corona of rippling light. He stared at it dumbly as that also shrunk from view, bubbles of air leaking from the corner of his partially open mouth.

He noted the silence. The only sound in the depths was the burbling of water, and that was almost relaxing to him. It was peaceful and cool and oooh… he could not fight the unconsciousness any longer. Slowly he closed his grey eyes, gave up all hope, and then drowned.

Back upon the ship Warren waited, looking over the side until the ripples in the water were devoured by the waves. When all was calm again he saluted his friend in fond remembrance, showing respect to a well-loved commanding officer. It felt like a long forgotten wound was finally starting to heal.

"At ease, Lieutenant Colonel Forren. Rest in peace."

He turned inside the ship again, closed the emergency exit and headed back to base.

Mission accomplished.


	25. And Rise the Master of the World

_/ "Master Siren, this is your Mieus calling from the Myau Eighteen, en route to Dezoris. Can you hear me? I'd like to talk with you if that's okay." /_

_/ "…Oh, Mieus. What is it? I was almost asleep." /_

_/ "Sorry for disturbing you, Master, only I'm about two thirds to Dezoris and had a great idea you might be interested in. You know how Zelan is not only capable of monitoring weather, but manipulating it too?" /_

_/ "Yes Mieus. That is possible." /_

_/ "Well, I was just wondering if you might like to test it out. No time like the present. In this case I'd like to give this arrogant layan here an icy coffin. He deserves it." /_

Mieus was leaning back in her pilot's chair, hands behind her head. She was speaking to Siren back on Zelan wirelessly, via the transmission devices on her ship. Behind her Rune was still trussed up into a little ball of fuming hatred, unable to hear a single word of the conversation. To him it just seemed like Mieus was relaxing as the autopilot flew itself. On Zelan Siren had been zoning out himself after so much work had been done. As a half-esper he required some rest that normal androids usually did not need.

Siren considered the proposition his servant was placing on the table. It was true that the weather system did fascinate him and all he needed was a good excuse to use it. This excuse seemed satisfactory enough, especially if it resulted in the dispatching of a layan soul. The wren-type smiled, glancing to the computer monitor and switching on meteorological maintenance program three, localised to the planet of ice. _/ "A blizzard, then? On Dezoris? What sector will you be landing upon?" /_

_/ "I don't know, Master. Why not the whole planet? Why not freeze **all** the layans to death starting with this one I have here?" / _Mieus asked sweetly, pushing forward what she already had her little heart set on.

She waited patiently while Siren considered this as well, but eventually she heard him laugh. Mieus had a feeling he was working on the weather programs even now as he spoke to her. She couldn't hear the keys of the computer clacking because she was tuned to the slight frequency of his inner voice. It was just a feeling she had. _/ "I'll will see what I can do for you. I expect to hear a report once you have returned from the execution." /_

_/ "Sure, no problem. Have you heard from Warren yet?" /_

_/ "His report is precisely the reason **why** I was almost half asleep. I am not up to date with such military lingo." / _Siren remarked informally. Mieus giggled. _/ "Leave me to it, please." /_

_/ "Yessir. Over and out." /_

Mieus lowered her arms back onto the armrests of the pilot's chair. Now there was silence, as Rune was in no position to talk. Her master had actually sounded like he was in a pretty good mood, probably because they had won a rather stunning uphill victory. He did have a tendency towards grumpy and scariness, but it was nice to know that it was only a mood thing. It was nice to know that sometimes, just sometimes, she could ask requests of him.

She liked her master, and frankly she was glad that she finally had one. The android's natural state was servitude; that was what they were made for and that was what they were best suited to do. Mieus had always been unhappy when she was free, with her mother and grandfather giving her no clear idea on what the hell her purpose in life was meant to be. Siren was a good master. She had an inkling he was going to completely change the world and find a place for her in the very midst of it.

That was exactly what she could put all of her faith on. Her life before that had been confusion and loneliness. It really was time for a change, and she _did_ have a soul. She did, she did, she _knew_ she did.

Rune was one great big ache. He would have felt more comfortable with his legs pretzelled around his head and his arms tied to the ceiling. His muscles complained so much not because they were fatigued from movement, but quite the very opposite. His circulation was going to hell; his limbs continuing to shift from numbness to pins-and-needles and back again. The only thing that kept Rune from going absolutely mad was visualizing exactly what he would do to Mieus if only his hands were free.

At least Chaz wasn't here to see him now. The young hunter would have had a field day if the situation hadn't been so serious. Not anymore now that the kid was dead. Gods, Rune had only seen him hours earlier! He had seen how much the kid had grown up! And damn it, despite his better judgement he had felt some kind of fatherly pride for him. He'd let Chaz see him tied up and humiliated if only it would bring his friends back.

The magician made a muffled sound around the gag half stuffed down his throat. Under normal circumstances it would have sounded like a small sob, but as it was it did not count. Nor were his watering eyes tears. Mieus heard the sob with her sharp-as-tacks hearing and spun her pilot's chair around to face him, one leg crossed over the other as she lounged luxuriously and waited. Rune glared.

"Not so uppity now, are you, as you lie and dwell on the deaths of your friends. Dwell on your own death too, as each minute that passes brings you closer to home." She jerked a thumb at the windshield behind her, where the large blue bowling ball that was Dezoris continually grew bigger. The glitter of the multi-globed worldship was only a shimmer at the corner of the screen. It had lost much of its importance now that more pressing matters were at hand. Mieus beamed. "I just heard that my partner has already done his job. Grandfather is finally dead. You are the last."

He was the very last protector of Algo. The others had performed their duty and saved the very galaxy itself, and _this_ was their reward? To be killed by some insane _nobody_ during a time of great peace? Fury boiled in the Lutz's belly. That was so unfair! He felt like a petulant child screaming that in his mind, to any force that could hear, but that was everything balled up into one dark little package. Unfair.

Rune grunted around his gag. Mieus took pity on him and came forward, sinking to her knees in front of the blue-haired man, and then yanked the gloves back out of his mouth. He coughed harshly, his throat feeling as dry as a desert. He couldn't remember the last time he'd had a glass of water. "… the last pest is always the bastard… the hardest one to get rid of…" He rasped.

Smiling, Mieus reached up and planted a gloved hand on top of Rune's head. Softly she stroked the messy strands of blue hair, from something that could barely be called a ponytail anymore. He had to grudgingly admit that it did feel sort of good, but it was only a few grains of good in a metric fuckton of bad. "Fortunately I have experience in dealing with bastards," she admitted cheerfully, "and if I really don't have a soul as you say, then there's no reason in psyching me out, you silly man."

Her hand curled into a fist and thumped him hard on the head. Normally it would have only concussed him, but he was weak and already wounded and exhausted. Rune blacked out. Mieus took him by the chin and examined the unconscious man's face, turning it this way and that so she could inspect the profile. Okay, so maybe he was a little handsomer than she thought. He was still a layan, and completely not her type.

She preferred men with barely any spine at all. It was just easier to deal with them that way. Not only that, but they were like building blocks, able to be shaped into any manner Mieus saw fit. This layan was too set in his ways to be changed, and anyway he deserved to die. She let go and Rune's head rolled down against his shoulder. She went back to piloting the ship.

Within the hour the Myau Eighteen touched down gracefully onto one of Dezoris' wide white snowfields. Mieus was proud of her landing. She had more than halfway expected it to be a jerky, bumpy nightmare. Miracles sometimes happened, she supposed. Her lips curved into a smile as she watched the blindingly opaque windscreen. It was like static upon a computer monitor. So much snow…

It was as if the blizzards from three years ago had returned. Mieus laughed out loud in pure delight. Siren could do _anything _once he set his mind to it! She rushed over to the emergency exit and just about kicked it open all by herself, but the real pull occurred when the howling wind practically yanked the door off its hinges for her. The freezing temperature flowed into the spaceship through the rectangle of white. Snow floated down in hastily-forming drifts on the floor.

Mieus found it amazingly beautiful. Just like herself; beautiful yet deadly. The female android moved over to her unconscious captive and unbuckled him from his bindings, then removed the shackles from his wrists. He kind of flopped, one freed hand swinging limply to graze the floor. Thin red lines where the shackles had pinched and bit into his skin were crusted with dried blood. She tsked briefly, reaching down onto the floor and picking up Rune's discarded gloves. He was going to need any clothing he could get on the surface of the planet, so she slipped the gloves back on his hands again.

Maybe it would be more fun to strip the esper naked and send him out into the storm that way, but he would barely suffer. He'd freeze in maybe two minutes instead of twenty. Mieus wanted Rune to have a good think about what he'd done before he met his maker. The girl gathered Rune up in her arms and passed through the emergency exit into the storm, jumping six feet down and landing in the snow. She barely heard the crunch of fresh ice under her boots due to the wind.

It was like standing in a freezing blender. Mieus felt like a rock unaffected by the environment around her. She was cold but that did not affect her, if anything that made her processing ability even faster. There were some silicon parts in the average android brain; low temperatures sharpened them while high temperatures slowed them.Mieus didn't really need to think right now; all that was needed was action. In truth, the only thing that really bugged her was the way that her hair kept blowing around in her face.

Mieus walked about twenty paces away from the Myau Eighteen, until they were out of its shadow, then she relaxed her arms and dumped Rune roughly into the snow. The sudden shock of the impact and the snow burning through into his wound roused him almost instantly. He tried to rise, stumbled and fell right back into the very same snowdrift, but the second attempt allowed him to drag himself shakily to his feet. He swayed but did not fall over again. He saw the flashes of red hair and bodysuit in the swirling white. He groggily glowered at Mieus.

She already had her claws out. If Rune even _tried_ to attack her with a spell in the middle of the blizzard in the state he was in she'd cut him down before he could raise his hand. Mieus pointed towards the invisible horizon. There could have been a mountain in the way for all they could see. "Okay Mr. Layan," she stated loudly amidst the storm, "march! Walk back to wherever you came from!"

Rune recognised the storm. Had they gone back in time to the storms of the Garuberk tower? Impossible, they had already fixed those storms… gods his head hurt. He was so tired, and a march was the very last thing he wanted to do besides dying. He didn't even know where the hell on Dezoris he was, and the cold was already rending his limbs and digits numb. He was dressed for summer on Dezoris, not the very heart of winter.

"You bitch…" He said quietly, unable to accept that this was where his path would inevitably end. He was the Lutz, it was not meant to end this way! Without a successor or memory storage device Rune's death would mean the death of the Lutz memory line. Two thousand years of experience would be lost. He didn't want to be remembered as the Lutz who helped to save everything once and for all only to fuck everything up for no reason three years later. It was so pointless. It was all so _pointless_, like an ancient and revered temple smashed down in order to make room for a turnip patch.

He took a step forward as if to attack, or at least try, but Mieus came forward with her claws raised and before he knew it he was trapped in her embrace. Each hand held a wrist and her rather ample attributes pressed softly against his front. The shackles had been better. His ripped wrists stung as she wrapped her fingers around them. "I really am lying, though. You won't go home. You'll walk into this storm and transform into an ice cube before the hour's through. Whether you go as a eunuch or not is totally up to you." She threatened with sugar upon every syllable.

Rune was pretty certain it wasn't a bluff. She was a man-eater, and Rune had known enough black widows in his time to judge that confidently. All he knew was that of all the women he had met in his life he had never hated one as much as he hated Mieus right now. He sneered at the android girl and tried to pull away with his wrists. "You just keep the hell away from me," he snarled, "and I hope someday you see the empty hole where your soul's supposed to be."

"Goodbye honey. Maybe you'll be luckier in your next life." Mieus smiled, then leaned forward and gave him a farewell kiss. Rune automatically recoiled away from her but he couldn't get very far; she was too strong for him and he was too tired. He supposed it was a pretty good kiss, for what it was worth, but his reaction was too slow when she quickly released his left wrist and shoved forward against his chest, over his wound; pushing him back with wicked glee. Rune fell over into the snowdrift for the third time that day.

This time it took a bit longer for him to get up again. Mieus slowly turned away back to her ship. "Prove to me you exist by giving up that existence." She laughed seductively, and then walked away.

Mieus could hardly see the outline of her ship in the storm, but she had a good sense of direction and headed off back the way she had came. She effortlessly leapt back in through the emergency exit and landed in a crouch, then before her little friend could catch up with her Mieus brushed all the intruding snow back out into the exit and tried to shake the excess snowflakes out of her hair. They were like glittering crystals and very pretty, but she didn't want to spread melted water everywhere. She felt extremely good for a reason greater than the purifying cold. She had done her job. Siren would be _so_ proud of her…

By the time Rune gathered his bearings and stood on his feet again he was just in time to hear the entrance to the Myau Eighteen slam shut and lock. He remained there forlornly; a blue-and-white speck in a blue-and-white storm. His face was grim, stony and pale. An unfamiliar feeling washed over him and immediately turned into ice. Rune didn't know what to do. He could do exactly what Mieus told him to do or what? Stand there? Run around blindly in circles? Cling to the hull of the Myau Eighteen and hope to the gods that he could hold his breath all the way to Zelan?

He was too tired for that. Too tired for anything, really. It would be to final blow to his dignity to obey the commands of a death sentence, but possibly the only chance he had was the chance of a miracle within the storm. Rune had to have faith; something that the soulless Mieus wasn't programmed to understand. He would not lose his faith or even consider throwing it away. He would just have to trust in the Great Light's reaching force.

He began to hear the screams of the engines as the spaceship warmed up for departure. Rune squinted through the blizzard ineffectually. He'd better get away fast or risk getting burned by the thrusters at blast-off. As if he were in a nauseating nightmare Rune turned and began to walk the opposite way. To where who the hell knew, but Rune was determined not to fall dead at the foot of where Mieus had once stood.

Walking was pain. It was more of a lurch than a walk. Already he could feel himself freezing. There was bound to be a town out there somewhere, an abandoned hut; even a cave if possible. Anything to keep himself shielded from the elements.

As the Myau Eighteen rose and shot back up into the atmosphere Rune disappeared into the snow.

Cold.

Cold…

So very cold…

And that was all he could remember.

†††

When Mieus settled back down into the pilot's chair she noticed that the little red light indicating an incoming transmission was flickering invitingly at her from the control panel. The transmission signal was coming from Zelan. She accepted the up-link hurriedly. "Hello Master!" She greeted with great cheer. "Your storm worked! It was amazing!"

"Actually it's me. I just got back." Warren replied from the ship's speakers. He sounded subdued. "Master Siren mentioned that you wanted to talk to me?"

Mieus bit her lip cutely. She didn't recall saying anything like that. It must have been her master's doing, though she didn't understand why he'd say anything like that either. "Where is he? I wanted to thank him for the blizzard." She admitted.

"He's sleeping. I don't want to disturb him. He said that casting his magic rapidly wears him out."

"The poor sweetheart." Mieus cooed, then changed the subject. "I heard that you killed Grandfather. Is that true?"

"Yeah, but I feel really bad about it. It felt good for a while but now it's just… you know. He used to be one of my closest friends."

"How'd you get rid of him?"

"The bottom of Motavia's ocean. He won't float. I promise he won't bother you anymore."

The girl leaned back in her seat. So everything had been dealt with now. What a relief. Secretly she was glad that custody of Rune had been passed over to her. If dispatching Wren would have been her job she would have made a mistake, or been too afraid to do it properly. As much as she had hated him his presence had always slightly scared her, like a cold reminder of what she lacked. Actually…

"Warren? Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure Mieus, what is it?"

"Do I… um, do you think that I have a soul?"

She surprised herself by saying that. Mieus had been completely confident that the dumb layan hadn't affected her outlook in the slightest, but the question had burst inside of her like a Trojan horse. There wasn't really anybody else she could talk to save for Siren and Whistler. Of the three of them Warren was the easiest to talk to, so she asked.

The reply she got was puzzled, even a little wary. "Why would you ask something like that? I'm not very smart when it comes to philosophical things, but… do you really think you don't? Why would you think that?"

The transmission was merely audio, so when Mieus looked down at the small blank screen on the control panel it merely read 'Sound Only' with the transmission coordinate code printed beneath it in calculator font. She wasn't sure whether she should be regretful or relieved that Warren could not see her face, and vice versa. "It was just something that the layan said. It got through to me and I just started to wonder. There must be some reason why my mother and grandfather gave up on me. Maybe not having a soul is that reason."

For a while there was silence on the other end. She wasn't sure what was happening on the other side but she could almost hear the void of sound that seemed to occur when her partner was thinking. As he thought, and as she waited, she knew that back there on Dezoris the layan that had reinforced her Grandfather's notion of soullessness was slowly freezing to death. His expiration was a certainty, after all, who else would be mad enough to wander around in that storm?

"I don't know why they gave up on you," Warren said eventually, though firmly, "and I don't think it's possible for me to reason their thoughts out for you. I do think you have a soul, though. Doesn't the fact that you worry so much about it prove that you have it? Mieus, you are an android, not a robot. You're just as alive as I am. Besides…" The properly articulated words turned into a soft mumble that Mieus couldn't understand. He'd sort of rushed the words, too.

"I didn't quite catch that. Could you say that again?" She asked.

There was a sigh on the other end, the embodiment of a person who had just wrangled something incredibly difficult out of their heart with great bravery and courage, only to have to do it all over again. It gave one a chance to think and possibly reason that it was an incredibly silly thing to say. Warren said it again anyway, louder and slower this time. "Besides… if you truly didn't have a soul then there's no way I could react to you the way I do. I was trying to say this earlier on Zelan but Mieus I really do think I am falling in love with you."

It was surprising, but not unexpected. After all, she had been the one leading him on with those kisses and endearing glances. The wren-type was an incredibly simple android, following her around like a puppy scared and far away from home. Mieus raised an eyebrow; an effect that was lost on the 'Sound Only' screen. "What on Motavia led you to that conclusion?" She inquired incredulously.

Warren sounded as though somebody was twisting his arm, or torturing him in some unseen way. Every word sounded like a carefully thought-out plea. "Because I think the very moment I clapped eyes on you I fell in love with you. It's rare in androids but it's not an impossible thing to have happen when a unit has affect. I just think that if we're going to be partners in the way that you dictate it then you should know how I feel. I'm probably just deluding myself, but if I'm not…"

"Yes?"

"I want you to know that you've already saved my life in more ways than one by helping to bring me out of the darkness. You helped to give me a reason to live again. No more living in the past from now on; only learning from it. I really do love you, Mieus."

Wow. Mieus was pleased but at the same time humbled by the sincerity of Warren's words. She had only been having fun; she'd never thought that it might escalate into something like this. It had been her idea to revive him from the dead, she freely consented to partnering herself with him, and so this was probably the next step in their relationship. The only thing that didn't seem quite right was the fact that she didn't love him back. Oh, sure she _liked_ him, thought he was cute and easy to manipulate, but that extended no further than fond amusement.

Like a toy. Everything was a toy to Mieus. She could tell that Warren was expectantly awaiting a reply, and that she could deeply hurt him just by saying the wrong words. She smiled. No breaking of toys today. "You can love me all you want, darling. I don't mind. It's good that you saw me first instead of Master Siren, however. Things would have been a lot different and _much_ stranger."

This elicited laughter from both sides. Another part of having a soul was also having an imagination. "Thank you for understanding." Warren said with huge relief. "I was afraid you might think I was crazy or something. This is wonderful! Thank you very much!"

It was as if the fact that they had just murdered two people held no importance at all. They had gotten away with it. Now they could laugh. "We can continue talking about this once I get back to Zelan. Possibly other stuff too. Do you mind talking to me through the trip? It's just that I'm the only one here now and it's getting kind of lonely…"

"I don't mind at all. I have no further orders anyway. Um… do you mind if I say it again?"

"Go ahead."

"I love you."

"That's right." He was probably grinning like an idiot as he said that. It'd be adorable. Mieus was looking forward to getting back to Zelan so she could see him again. "Honey, can I ask you a favour? I've always been curious about what things were like back in the Collapse Wars. Do you think you could tell me a story about it to pass the time?"

"Oh, okay. Did you have anything in particular in mind?" The request had sobered him slightly, but only slightly. He was still in a very good mood. As he had said minutes earlier it was time to learn from the past rather than re-live it. The hard part was thinking about what stories to tell. Some were too bloody, too gruesome, and others definitely were not suitable for women and children. Little did he know that that was exactly the material Mieus wanted to hear about most of all.

Mieus thought back to the military profile she had read long ago. "You received a medal once for being wounded, for losing a limb or something like that. Tell me about it. You have all your bits attached right now, as I recall."

"Well, I was eventually repaired, but I was still on a crutch for a week before they could get a mechanic in. I lost my right leg. Stepped on a landmine and the explosion took it right off me up to the knee. I wound up lying in a minefield for three days waiting to be rescued. It was really boring. The wait, that is."

He stopped talking. Mieus waited. "That was it?" She asked.

"More or less, yeah."

"Do you think you could tell it in a more… storytellerish manner?" She pressed sweetly.

Warren sounded embarrassed at himself for being so curt. "Oh, right, sure. Let me think. It was the spring of 1285 and the territory of Arima was covered in ruined crops and dust, on account of the weather stations going berserk due to Mother Brain's death. The rebels had reclaimed the territory from the government and coated the place from top to bottom with live mines, but we had to cross anyway to assist the squads on the other side. There were eleven of us, maybe twelve, and then we decided…"

Mieus listened with rapt attention as the Myau Eighteen zoomed its way home. Those who wronged her were dead, those who cared for her were waiting, and soon her true purpose would be known. She just had to be patient.

For the very first time in her life, she was finally happy.

†††

Shortly after he had delivered to Mieus the blizzard she wanted so much and spoke briefly with Warren, Siren slept.

It was the kind of sleep in which no other person in the Algo system could relate. It was not deactivation like an android, though there were similarities, and it was not like the mysterious slumbers of living palmans, though there were similarities there also. It was an amalgam of the two states of being, and in the slight cleft between both of them Siren dreamed.

On the outside he was slumped over a dead computer system with his head resting against his folded arms, the bare metal of his vaguely palman face framed by his vibrant hair. He _could_ fix himself from the wound that the layans had inflicted upon his body, but he wasn't certain if that was what he wanted yet. The pain had gone down and all the synthetic nerves had died; the android having pulled away all the remaining dead flesh like a child picking at a scab.

It would be a pain to repair something that was essentially a cosmetic procedure. It'd subtract time away from repairing androids that actually needed the service to survive. Siren dreamed about the future as much as a half-esper, half-android could. Realistically, tactically, and yet fantastically. He had plans. He just had to gather them into order.

There were two planets: Motavia, the planet of dust, and Dezoris, the planet of ice. In his perfect world view there were to be only two main races; the true followers of Lord Orakio and the liberated android people. The layans would be wiped out and the Motavians and Dezorians could be subservient to his chosen children, if they so desired. Death was their other alternative. He held no ill will towards either group, but _every _race should yield faithfully under his power.

Two races. Two planets. The solution was obvious. There would be a planet for orakians and a planet for androids, and together they would form an alliance made friendly by his ruling hand and way. He would be kind to them. He would take care of them, but if anybody cared to step out of line they'd immediately be put to death. _That_ was the way the worlds should be run, with an iron- or steel fist.

Along with the races and the planets he also had two servants. They would each go down to the planets as his disciples and spread the word of his Way. They would capture the planets and make them his; ready for proper colonization. Meanwhile, Siren would stay on Zelan and get to work on reviving the android people. They would need an army and he knew _exactly _how to make one. Whistler would keep him company while he worked.

Motavia was so hot and that heat would slightly slow a positronic brain, making android followers easier to handle. In the dust and sand his fellow androids would build themselves a new home. They couldn't _all_ live on Zelan, anyway. Major Warren would make a good commander for them. He had experience and the honest tenacity to get things done. Siren didn't trust him completely, but he would keep an eye on him just in case his suspicions came to fruition.

Dezoris was cold and harsh, yet so much life thrived there. If cared for properly orakians would be able to survive with ease. Siren had not forgotten about the worldship from whence he and his history had come. The loyal people there needed a place to call home. Why not Dezoris? Why not cut them a break and end their great journey, allowing them to rest on natural soil at last? He just needed somebody to weed out the weaklings, a devoted servant who could perform the dirtiest works with a smile, and better than that, enthusiasm. Mieus, his beautiful little servant would be just perfect for the job.

This kind of idealistic thought and planning could take months, even years. Fortunately with their current foes defeated they would have plenty of time on their side. He wasn't afraid of a little hard work.

Siren shifted a bit in his sleep. Give him another hour or two and he'd be ready to get back to work. Then it would be time to get right down to business.

The new master of Algo slept, and the world moved on.


	26. One Month Later

All this was a tale told four weeks and six days ago. The two men who were meant to have died never did, and as time passed in sleep and cold drowning the world moved on…

Rune needed to realise that his story had only just begun.

†††

It was close to midnight when Rune finally ran out of things to say. The candle that Laerma had lit earlier in the night had lost an inch or two of its height and little waxy rivulets of melted candle had run down the sides like tears. Rune himself wasn't teary however; he had retold the memories of those few days with a distinctive brand of quiet, reflective introspection. Not only was he telling the tale to Laerma, he was also telling it to himself. In the pale candlelight the esper looked incredibly sick, sallow and weak, but it was still an improvement from his coma-like state. He kept his bandaged hand under the fur blankets; his fingers hurt less when they were kept warm.

Laerma had barely spoken since Rune had begun the retelling of his story. Well, she had cut in two or three times to request clarification over terms, things or people she had no knowledge of, but other than that the girl had been completely silent. Her older brother would have been stunned into silence himself. When the night grew and the temperature _really_ started to drop the dezorian priestess had draped extra furs about Rune's shoulders and had added more fuel to the fire. It was going to be one of those nights.

When the last words fell a deep silence enshrouded the hut like fresh snow. Rune glanced at Laerma seated by his side, watching him like she was hoping he might say more. It had been like tossing words into a vacuum, she'd listened to every word he had said. Eventually he ended it all up with a despondent shrug. "… So that's everything I can remember. Obviously there are holes in the story where things have happened and I haven't been around to witness them, but that's all I can say. What do you think?"

The girl seemed surprised that she had been asked a question. Outside the hut the frigid winds continued to rattle the monster-skin windows, but they were fastened tight and none of the storm swept inside. Laerma thought carefully. "Um… I don't know what I think. I understand parts of it but not the whole picture, like the spaceships and the planet ships and such. I have heard legends about them though, like the huge ship resting underneath Tyler."

She hadn't caught on to the fact that the Landale was that very ship. At least that part didn't matter. Rune smiled a bit, despite his feeling of utter misery. He had survived but that didn't mean much if all his friends were dead. The Lutz memories he protected still lived, but it lived upon the bodies of those who had been sacrificed. It left a faint bitter taste in Rune's mouth. "It's a miracle that you and your brother were around to save me from the storm. Maybe it was providence from the Great Light."

"You said that you prayed for the Great Light to save you, and it did." Laerma said in awe, though Rune knew it had been more of an; '_oh god please don't let it end this way_', rather than prostrating himself and worshipping the blizzard air. He wasn't about to clarify matters, and meanwhile Laerma's green face broke out into a huge shining smile. "This must mean that Gisarg and I were used as an instrument of the Great Light itself! Oh, I am honoured! Gisarg would never believe this!"

"That's possible I guess." Rune replied tiredly. If the Great Light had _really_ wanted to help him then it also should have saved Chaz and the others. Just like he had said upon Zelan; there was nothing that made one friend more dispensable than another. Was he saved simply because he was the Lutz? That didn't seem fair. He almost resented the light for it.

"Is it alright if I ask some questions and talk and such now that you're finished with your story? I think Gisarg and I figure into things much more than you realise." Laerma chimed.

Rune just shrugged again; there was nothing else to do and although he still fel extremely tired any new information was welcome. _She_ had managed to sit still and listen for a few hours so he might as well do the same. "Sure, go ahead. Shoot."

"Well, firstly, what are you going to do now? Have you thought about that?" The dezorian asked, cradling her elbow with one long-fingered hand and tapping her chin lightly with the other. He wasn't well enough to travel, not yet, but once he was healed she wanted him to go somewhere safe. Too many bad things had happened to him recently. He needed a break. His coma had been nowhere near that break.

"I have no idea but I'll think of something. I'd go back into the Myst vale and consult with Myau again, but if this place is near Jut the valley is half a planet away. Walking there in this storm might be tricky. The esper mansion is much closer… but I really don't want to go back there. I guess I have to. Kyra would be there. She needs to know what happened, too." Rune sighed and rubbed a pinch of furry blanket between two fingers. It felt very soft. "She has to know the others are gone."

The priestess did something unexpected. She beamed. "Actually that might not be true. Not all of it." She remarked mysteriously.

Rune raised his head to look at her. "What do you mean?" He said flatly.

She actually seemed happy, like she was guarding a secret getting ready to simply burst out of her chest. "You're friends with Su Raja, right? He was with you in the snowfields of Tyler, in your space castle up in the stars, and came back with you to fight against the metal thing from the planet ship?"

That was proof she had been listening even to the little details, but _friend_ was such a strong word when pasted upon that wisecracking though doddery bishop. Comrade, yes. A healing hand when one was bleeding all over the place, yes. However, Rune wasn't sure he'd spend time with the old dezorian by choice. "In a manner of speaking." He said at last, uncertainly.

Placing a hand on her chest Laerma's smile became sincere. "I mentioned earlier this evening that my uncle named me and that he had a weird sense of humour. Su Raja is my mother's older brother. I joined the Gumbian priesthood mostly because I admired the path he had taken. If he were dead I feel I would know it deep in my heart and soul. Not simply because of my spiritual powers, but because he is family. Uncle Raja is not dead, though he is very far away."

She seemed pretty sure about it, but a mere feeling was far from factual evidence. Yet, wasn't the horrible feeling Rune had had over a month ago also a catalyst to something terrible and true? The thought of Raja having a family was also something that hadn't quite occurred to Rune. Priests could not marry and so they could not have children, but they _could_ have brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews. The esper mulled this information over in his head. "Even so, I'm not sure…" He murmured.

"Three weeks ago I had a strange dream about him. He was walking through this orange snow that wasn't cold and he was complaining loudly about the heat. I didn't really understand the nature of the dream until now. He's on the other planet, Motavia, isn't he?" Laerma guessed, though Rune couldn't confirm that. Her guess was as good as any. If Raja was somehow alive then maybe Chaz was too, and Rika, and Hahn. Rune's spirit _should_ have experienced a little hiccup of hope, but nothing of the sort ever came. He did not believe in it.

The android who had left him to die in the freezing cold had sounded pretty certain that his friends had been taken care of. If Rune got his hopes up now only to realise they were unfounded he'd have to deal with that horrible sinking feeling all over again, if it were even possible to sink any lower. "It doesn't help me any if I'm stuck here on Dezoris. I just have to get to the mansion. I'll figure out what to do next from there." He announced softly.

"There's something else you ought to know." The priestess continued, speaking with slight anxiety as if the wrong ears might be listening. She looked over her shoulder for a moment just in case. "Along with the vicious storms something else on Dezoris appeared that has never been here before. It doesn't bother us dezorians for some reason nobody has figured out yet, but Gisarg tells me news that the palman hunters and villages are suffering terribly. He says that the palman race is cursed and they're getting what they deserve." She said bitterly, unhappily.

Rune took this in stride. It didn't surprise him. The enemy had not been sleeping while he was in a coma, after all. "What do you mean?" He asked.

"It's only what Gisarg has told me," Laerma added, like a disclaimer, "because he's the one who deals with traders and stuff like that. There's this palman girl who appears at the gates of palman towns. She doesn't talk to anybody or do anything; she just stands and watches, waits. When the sun goes down she walks into town by cover of darkness and in the morning every person in the town is dead. Gisarg says the wounds on the bodies look like they were made by snow tigers; ripped into bloody pieces. The snows in the towns look like a carpet of red."

He knew where this was going to go. A knot formed in the esper's stomach. "It's not a palman girl. No palman girl can do that and survive in the middle of a blizzard. This is-"

"It sounds like the one who brought you here. In four weeks she's already wiped out three towns. Those were Lidra, Majimra and the newly rebuilt Reshel. There were some refugees from Reshel who made it to Meese in time before they froze. Their first-hand accounts reached the hunters' ears and now they call her the Red Demon, snow devil. Nobody's been able to corner her, track her down or kill her. The hunters have so desperately tried. They're very angry."

"So she's made her home on this planet, huh. She's a servant of Siren. I'd really like to get my hands back on her someday. She did all _this_ to me and I'd pay it back tenfold." Rune muttered darkly, raising his mutilated hand above the blankets for a few moments. Now _that_ was a goal he could sink his teeth into. After the esper mansion, with Siren and his own friends vanished, or possibly dead, Mieus was the only real lead he had right now. She could lead him back to Siren and if he was the only protector left Siren would be the end of his revenge.

"In that sense you and Gisarg would be of the same mind. He thinks that if he can capture the Red Demon it'll recruit him into the ranks of the legendary hunters. Rune, you're welcome to stay here for as long as you like. Once you feel ready to travel in the storms we'll take you to Jut. You can journey to your mansion from there." Laerma smiled at him as she folded her hands in her lap. "I hope things will turn out okay for you."

Tiredness began to grip Rune's limbs and his mind. In his weakened state merely thinking of rest was enough to make his body want to pack it up and head to sleep. He had been talking for too long. Rune yawned, leaning back in bed. "Okay. Thanks for that."

Laerma adjusted his furs again. "Do you really think it was the Great Light who orchestrated this?" She pressed gently.

"Who knows? Whether it's a deity or random chance, as long as it happened that's good enough for me." He replied just as a pair of heavy boots clomped through the threshold into the hut, bringing with them a cold and slightly drunk older dezorian. He brushed the clinging snow away and hung up his coat, while Laerma stood up from her seat beside Rune's bed.

"Gisarg! Where have you been? You missed out on Rune's amazing story!" She exclaimed.

"What on Dezoris can a dirty esper say that'll bring me the slightest amount of interest?" Gisarg asked his sister gruffly, but the animosity had been washed out of his system by the drink. The hunter just seemed tired by the activities of the very long day. He walked over to the central hearth and warmed his hands on the flames, then turned to the other two occupants of the hut. "Anyway, have you figured out what we're going to do with him?"

The manipulative air flowed back around the dezorian priestess. For a moment her smile became cheeky, but then she smoothed it out. "I heard all about Rune's hunting of the Red Demon. He knows who she is and where she came from. Rune was even _captured_ by the Red Demon at one point. It was a really interesting story." She said.

Gisarg glared at Rune. The thin slitted eyes hit him like a concentrated laser. Nothing else really changed in his demeanour but the Lutz was deeply aware of the hunter trying to gauge the truth. He smirked grimly. "Bah. The she-devil didn't turn up until well after this esper here was frozen in the snow. I think he's been spinning you a tale, Laerma. You're far too trusting sometimes."

"Being trusting is my calling, Gisarg." Laerma stated peacefully.

"… It makes more sense when you realise she came to this planet exactly when I did. I kind of hitched a ride with her, so to speak. She left me for dead in the snow." Rune admitted, pulling the blankets up to his shoulders and turning to lie on the side that wasn't bound in bandages. "Now leave me alone. I'm tired. Bother me in the morning."

"It _is_ getting pretty late." The dezorian girl observed along with him. "I've explained to Rune that we'll keep him here until he's well, then we'll let him go to Jut. It'll only be for a few more days, so is that okay?"

"I never agreed to anything like that!" The dezorian snapped, but the priestess didn't even flinch at his tone of voice. While laying on his side Rune half-watched the conversation take place with interest. It was a rehash of the same argument the siblings enacted almost every night since Rune had come to their little hut, but this was the first time he was able to witness it way up front.

Laerma placed her hands on her hips. "You may be my big brother and the one who funds this family but _I_ am the one who cooks the meals, washes and repairs the clothing, keeps this little outpost tidy and daily prays for your safe return. You don't have to do a single thing for Rune, that's entirely my duty. All you have to do is forget that he's even here, or else I'll…" She began threateningly, but then sort of went silent.

"Or else you'll do what?" Gisarg prodded.

"I'll go on strike. Complete with picket signs and everything. And chants. Oh, and I'll pray to the Great Light and tell it to drop an avalanche on your head." The priestess explained.

It may very well be an empty threat, but despite his looks Gisarg was a very religious person. It came from a harsh upbringing and the Gumbian church was just about the only authoritarian figure he respected. As a priestess of that faith Laerma held a foot over him on that one. Besides, she was the kind of little sister who probably _would_ go through with her childish threats. It wasn't worth the trouble over one stupid esper. He didn't even have to do anything, but he expected Laerma to appreciate his looking the other way, possibly with a special dinner or something.

Gisarg performed a rather impressive growl, but it was a growl of defeat. "Alright, alright! Whatever! Let's just get some sleep. I have to be up by four to get to work. Esper boy better not bother me before then, or he'll sleep in the snow!"

That was the closest Laerma knew they were going to get to consent. Gratefully she hugged her older brother. "Thank you, Gisarg! I'll make you jishgara roast tomorrow evening to celebrate!" Gisarg smirked a little wickedly at that. The priestess turned to her patient. "Rune, did you hear that? You're allowed to stay!"

However, the esper exhausted from his storytelling was already asleep.

†††

All in all Rune spent three more days with Raii Laerma and Gisarg recovering from the lingering effects of his month-long coma. He needed time to get used to the amputation of some of his fingers (like the fact that he could barely hold a spoon or fork in his left hand anymore, but that was okay because he was right-handed), and there was some slight muscular atrophy in his legs. That sort of thing just needed to be walked off, though he could only walk around the hut. The esper was grateful for something even as simple as that.

Laerma found a pair of Gisarg's old hunting clothes and spent most of the morning after Rune's awakening tailoring and altering it to match the Lutz's shorter and broader frame. The clothing was made of warm pelts and leather with a set of moccasins and worn boots that miraculously fit Rune's feet, if he stuffed it with withered snow grass beforehand. The entire outfit smelt like waterproofing oil with faint traces of snow mole urine. Rune couldn't complain. It was better than nothing and his old clothes were too ruined to be worn anymore. At least the new outfit would protect him from the storm, and felt wonderfully cosy and snug to wear.

On the second day the bandages from Siren's gunshot wound were finally ready to be removed. Rune ended up looking at himself bare-chested in the mirror when the bindings were gone. He'd lost a bit more weight than he had anticipated; when he stood on his side he could easily see the bony shapes of his ribs beneath the skin. The healed wound looked like a burn that tanned the flesh of his shoulder a permanent sunburned reddish-brown. There was stitching in places where the snow moles had dug too deeply into the wound. The rest of the injury was one great big shallow crater.

Rune stared. He was still himself, but at the same time he had become somebody else. A maimed, wounded esper. He could not look into the mirror for very long. Unfortunately that was what he would have to do now, every day for the rest of his life. That burn would never fade away.

On the third day Rune contemplated testing out his magic again, but in the end he refrained. It was unlikely that his magic would have atrophied along with his body and even if he did cast magic in such a small area he could deal some pretty bad property damage to the hut. Rune told himself this until he began to believe it. He didn't want to believe that he feared the atrophy may be true. There was no rational reason behind the fear; it just existed as it was. Maybe Mieus and Siren had taught him some humility after all.

When it was long past dark and everybody had fallen asleep in their beds Rune finally forced himself up and settled down beside the low hearth fire, catching a lick of flame in his hands as it spiralled up to play. His black gloves protected his hands from the heat somewhat, gloves that Laerma had thoughtfully snipped fingers off and resewn with dainty little stitches to fit his mutilated hand better. They didn't hurt so much anymore, but Rune kind of dreaded the day when the bandages would have to be removed.

Waves of shimmering heat emanated from the fire in Rune's hands as he pensively rolled the flame around and between his fingers, like the slight-of-hand toying with a copper coin. His magic kept the little scrap of heat alive and if Rune focussed hard enough he could enlarge or suffocate it at will. He really _was_ alright; his magic was still there. The esper squeezed the flame to death and let out a deep sigh of profound relief. That was the last worry on his mind, now he was ready to go. Tomorrow morning he would leave this place.

So on the morning of the fourth day Rune said his goodbyes to the Raii household. The storm was at its weakest just after dawn and in tiny strips and meagre flashes they could just about see the rising sun in the thick, heavy clouds. He stood in the blowing snow in his hunting furs and looked at Laerma waiting in the doorframe of the dezorian hut, while Gisarg gladly got his snow mole sled ready for departure. The giant rat-like creatures squealed and snarled as the hunter firmly lashed them into the harnesses.

There was only enough room for two people on the sled so Laerma was forced to stay behind. Rune wasn't really used to reading dezorian faces for emotion but he could easily tell the priestess seemed sad. He folded his arms. "So this is it. If I don't leave now I'll probably never leave, it seems."

Laerma stepped out of the threshold and into the field. She walked over to Rune just as Gisarg cursed over something or other with the sled. The temperature didn't really bother her as much as it bothered Rune. This was her climate, after all. "You need to take special care of yourself. You're still slightly malnourished and your muscles are weak. Don't overexert yourself in the storm. Oh, and the bandages on your fingers and toes should come off in about three days time."

"Right. I'll remember that."

"Do you have everything planned out?"

"More or less. I'm gonna head to the mansion and heal up there, then I'll try and think of a way to contact my friends if they're still alive. If I can't get anything I'm going to go after Mieus myself. She's sure to attack another village sooner or later. I'll make sure I'm there for it." Saying it like that made it seem like a long hard road ahead, iced with permafrost. He wasn't even sure that he'd survive the journey from Jut to the esper mansion on foot, but he still had to try. Laerma was probably aware of this too. That may be why she seemed so sad.

The girl lost eye contact with Rune. "Well, thanks for telling me your story the other night. It would've bugged me not knowing the mystery behind the body in the snow." Her voice dropped quite a bit in volume. "… I will remember to pray for your safety."

He couldn't help but break out into a smile. _She_ was thanking _him_ for a mere story? It'd be more appropriate for Rune to thank her for not letting him lay there in the blizzard to die. Mieus would have killed him but she hadn't been counting on somebody like Laerma turning up on the fly. He opened his arms in a gesture that any person, of any race or language could understand. "All right. Come here. I need to thank you too." He said as if it were a chore, but they knew he didn't mean it.

She caught on pretty quickly. Laerma grinned widely and practically glided over to Rune, throwing her arms around him for a tight squeezing hug. She was spindly and seemed frail, but she hugged like the jaws of a vice. Rune made an 'oof' sound as the air was squeezed from his lungs, but then the priestess thankfully relaxed her arms a little. "If you contact uncle Raja please tell him Gisarg and I are thinking of him." She requested softly.

"Okay…" Rune wheezed above her.

"Also, once you get to Jut check out your right coat pocket. I left something in there for you. Don't forget, it's very important!" She piped as she straightened up and let go of Rune, stepping back towards her current home. The constant streams of snow were already piling up on her heavy clothes, just as they must be doing to him.

He brushed a small mound of snow off one shoulder as Gisarg approached him and his sister. He held the coiled leather of his whip in one hand. Laerma had told Rune once that the hunter could part flesh from bone easily with a single crack of that taming whip. By the look of the thing he wasn't going to dismiss it as simple boasting. "Let's get going," Gisarg growled, "I'm taking a detour from my normal route just to get rid of you, so hurry up and get on the sled!"

Rune didn't need to be told twice. He strolled over to the sled and the tamed snow moles glared at him with their beady little albino eyes, as if they also bore some hatred of espers shared by their master. One tried to snap at him but its harness kept it at bay. The two dezorians followed him to the sled and Rune brushed aside the blankets so he could sit at the head of the sleigh. The driver would stand behind him at the back and the whip would sail over his head to strike at the moles before him.

That would certainly wind up unnerving him. Laerma leant down beside him and smiled. "Goodbye Rune, it was nice meeting you. I hope we'll see each other again someday."

He smirked back at her. "Yeah, thanks for everything. Bye."

Gisarg climbed onto the wooden step and unravelled his taming whip. He flicked it high into the air over the heads of all those attached to the sled and the sound it made was reminiscent of an old-fashioned gunshot. All the hunting moles flinched. They knew what that sound meant, what came after, and what they had to do. The hunter screamed a word in his native tongue which probably meant 'mush!' in english and the moles began to strain against their harnesses, pulling with all their might. The sled creaked and groaned and then slowly started to move.

Laerma watched them go and waved a bit in the off-chance somebody turned around to look back at her. It didn't take long for Rune and Gisarg to vanish in the blizzard. Eventually it got too cold to just stand around so she briskly rubbed warmth back into her arms and went inside, back to home and hearth. For now her role was done.

The sled ride into Jut was more pleasant than Rune would have expected. It must have been a punishment to the hunter standing up straight and driving in the storm, shouting out orders and flogging any stragglers, but up front and under the blankets Rune felt quite warm. His only complaint was that his face had gone totally numb. He ducked down and threw a fur blanket over his head, then lit a slight flame between two of his fingers, being very careful not to let it spread.

The journey wasn't very long but it definitely _felt_ long. At some point he fished around in his coat pockets for the thing Laerma had mentioned earlier. He was impatient and curious as to what it was. Inside the deep pocket he found a small bag of meseta and a letter. It was difficult unfolding a letter with one damaged hand in a confined space while trying not to set said space on fire. Once he figured it out it read;

_'Here is some money for you to buy food and supplies for your trip. Don't feel bad if you think you are stealing from me; consider it charity from Gisarg's secret saving stash. (Ha ha!)_

_A caravan from Jut's market district to Meese will be heading out this afternoon. Try and buy your way onto the caravan and jump off when you get close enough to your mansion. Don't try and make the entire trip on your own._

_Have a safe journey!_

_Raii__ Laerma.'_

"Well," Rune muttered with a chuckle, feeling like he was in control again for the first time in a long while, "a safe journey? I think I will."

Gisarg dropped him off in Jut later that morning without much of a word and definitely nothing along the lines of a goodbye. It was like he was dumping garbage, but Rune didn't care. He was glad to see the back of that guy and briefly considering providing him with a tandle as a farewell gift.

It was time to get out of there, but first a trip to the bar seemed grossly overdue. He'd been dry for far too long and he had some hours to kill.

Scarred but still alive, against all odds, Rune wandered away.

†††

_/ "Captain?" /_

_/ "Receiving. What's the matter?" /_

_/ "Did the base get that transmission like my team just did? Seems like he's still alive. Could you go and look into it for me? I'd go myself but peace negotiations are kind of dragging longer than I expected." /_

_/ "No problem. I'll take a team and go check out the transmission source. I seem to be closer to it than your team anyway." /_

_/ "Thanks, Cass. Be careful." /_

_/ "Over." /_

Commander Warren of the Marauder First Armed Division switched off his communicator and put it away, then snapped open the emergency flare he had been holding in his other hand. Deep red sparks and smoke crackled loudly from the contraption. He tossed it into the air casually and caught it again, then held it close to the haystack piled against Molcum town hall. The entire population of Molcum watched him do this with Gryz furiously standing at the forefront of the crowd. They all would have rushed the android threatening their village immediately if there hadn't been a dozen gunmen and robots standing right behind him with their weapons drawn.

A few stalks of hay curled and turned black as sparks sailed down into the tinder. The android raised the flare out of the danger zone and sighed. "So are you going to stop attacking my soldiers now or do I have to do something I'll regret later? You're not even layans, so we don't have any interest in you. Go ahead and live here in peace, just please leave us alone." He requested politely.

Gryz frowned as much as a motavian was able. "No. Get the hell out of our lands."

And so, scarcely half an hour later, Molcum burnt to the ground.

†††

It wasn't that Wren had passed out while waiting for his friends to arrive at the spaceport from their base at Nurvus; it was that his severely damaged and waterlogged body had been unable to maintain functionality and consciousness for any longer. He became an empty, almost dead shell, barely clinging to his pseudo-life by a few thin strands. Sending that distress signal had exhausted the last of the energy reserves he had left.

Wren lay in dark dead lifelessness for an incalculable amount of time. It could have been an hour or a thousand years, but with no consciousness or ability to measure time it made no difference in the long run. After nearly five weeks existing as ocean junk and surviving the trip to the spaceport it just seemed horribly unfair to break down irreversibly and find that that was the end of that.

However, something changed in that lack of consciousness and Wren slowly opened his eyes. He was far from being in the best of condition so every function felt like a tremendous effort. The darkness of the spaceport was lit by kerosene lamps and beyond them three formless shapes loomed about in the dim orange glow. The android lifted his head a little to get a better look at them and as his eyes adjusted to the low light one of the dark shapes dove forward and grabbed him by the shoulders. Wren did not react; it was as if most of his body had been completely paralysed.

The shadow lightened into the pink hair and lithe body of Rika, and the grab was more of a relieved hug to be honest. She had spent the past two hours with nothing but a mere repair kit trying to stabilize Wren's weakened positronics and AI, bringing it away from the verge of death. Repairing the rest of his body had to take a back seat to that. When Wren had opened his eyes and looked at her Rika knew her hard work hadn't been in vain. Wren was still alive. Against all odds he hadn't given up and died.

She wrapped her arms around him and squeezed the android tightly. For a few moments just about all he could see was a lot of pink hair. "Wren! You really _are_ alive! Where have you been all this time? We thought you'd been killed!" She squeezed him again a second time, even though he was cold. As she pulled away Wren could also see Hahn and Chaz standing behind her, holding the two lanterns which cast light throughout the room.

The sight of Hahn no longer surprised him, but the scholar did seem a little healthier in person when compared to how he had looked on the screen. He was tired, stubbly, thin and possibly even slightly sick. Chaz was two or three steps up from him, seeming only tired and just a little bit stubbly, but his sword arm was cradled against his stomach in a loose sling. There were no bandages wrapped around the limb; the arm seemed healed, but it was still kept there bound for no discernable reason. Chaz and Hahn didn't say anything as Rika leant back in a crouch before Wren, but both of them were smiling tired smiles.

Rika was still a sight of good health. Whatever trials the three had been going through the numan girl seemed to have dealt with it with more resilience than the other two men. She met Wren's blank, yet somehow questioning gaze. "I've fixed your sound card's stutter so you should be able to talk to us. Please say something; we need to know if you're okay."

He obeyed the request. "I am capable of some minor function. Internal damages at 12.8 percent. External damages at 34.4 percent. Auto-repair function is currently disabled." Wren's voice sounded back to normal, the stutter was completely gone. Rika had done a good job of fixing him. Once his auto-repair was enabled he'd be capable of fixing most of his body by himself. If Warren hadn't switched it off when all his peripheral parts were removed Wren might have reactivated much sooner. Despite that he was grateful to Rika for her help and thankful to see that at least three of his friends were still alive.

Wren had been terribly damp and dangerous when he'd first stepped into the spaceport. He was almost dry now, and lying against the wall in the paralysed position he was in a great deal of sand and grit had fallen from between the chinks in his limbs and body. It was one of those things that would take forever to get rid of. Small smatterings of sand had piled up all around him. Rika placed her hands upon her knees. "Your insides were full of sand and seaweed and," she bit her lip as if trying not to laugh, "A really small fish. What happened to you? It looks like you drowned, but you were on Zelan with us last time we saw you."

"Thank you for repairing me." Wren said evenly, evading the subject for now. There would be time to get into that later. With great effort he managed to push himself up a bit against the wall. "Please enable my auto-repair and I should be able to move after some time."

Hahn came forward a bit and looked over Rika's shoulder, shutting the lantern halfway so he wouldn't end up blinding any of his friends. His long, now lank hair hung down against his face. "It's lucky you were wearing that ring of yours or else I would've never believed you. I thought you were part of that army at first, even if you looked like you. We accepted that you were dead a long time ago."

Chaz spoke up now. He somehow sounded much older than he had a month ago, softer, fatigued, less like Chaz than Chaz usually was. The fingers in his sling curled slightly as he spoke. "Yeah, you and Rune and Demi. We even thought about having a memorial for you guys. What happened to the other two? Are they okay?"

He did not sugar-coat the facts as he knew them. That was something somebody with emotions might try to do. "They were executed by Siren." Wren thought a little further and amended his statement. "Executed just as I was."

That was food for thought. Wren was still alive due to nothing else but a miracle. Maybe the others had escaped their deadly sentences too. The news didn't bring comfort to Rika however; tears filled her big blue eyes. "I'm sorry. I knew I should have stayed on Zelan with you and Rune. Things might have turned out better than they have. I'm such a coward…" She sniffed, holding a hand against her mouth.

In the past Chaz would have rushed to console her. As her fiancé that was his duty, but after five weeks of the trials they had been through and Chaz's own personal problems the young hunter just kind of studied the wall to his right quietly. Hahn was the one who came to her aid instead, placing a hand on the girl's shoulder and patting gently. "Don't say that. You made the most level-headed decision possible and got us out of there. You saved four lives, but you can't feel terrible for not saving _everybody_."

Even Wren offered some consolation in his own particular way. "We were mindful of the danger when we faced the enemy. It was not of your concern."

Hahn looked over at the other palman in the room. "Chaz?"

"Huh?"

The scholar cleared his throat.

Chaz eventually comprehended. He blinked and the 'oh of course I see' look came over his face. He smiled at Rika. "If you stayed I would have died, so it's okay. Don't feel bad, honey."

Rika sighed and calmed down. After she composed herself she was ready to get things done, picking up a tool from the repair kit by her side. "Yes, alright. I'll fix your auto-repair system now, Wren. While I'm doing that why don't you tell us about what happened up on Zelan with you and Rune and Demi? We can tell you all about what's been happening on Motavia ever since you vanished. Siren's… um, taken control of the weather systems and he's building an army. An android army."

"That's why I didn't trust you at first. I thought you were one of _them_." Hahn admitted bashfully.

The android thought about all that had been said. Everybody required answers. He nodded slightly in agreement. "Very well. Please brief me on the situation. There is much I need to know."

Nodding, Rika applied her knowledge of robotics to his system and began to work.

†††

In the five weeks since the attack on Zelan much had changed. Rika had taken Hahn, Raja and her wounded fiancé onto the Landale and had flown it herself straight back to the surface of Motavia, where Chaz could get the proper medical attention he so desperately required. The best doctor in Kadary had been woken in the very early hours of the morning to furious knocking at his back door, and he had started the new day by treating the most severely shattered arm he had seen in his entire life.

The broken bones had actually been the least of Chaz's worries. Once they were set in proper plaster they would heal normally, naturally, but the real problem was the hole in Chaz's shoulder from where he had been impaled upon his own sword. The wound was already sewn up nicely and the slashed veins reconnected so he wouldn't bleed internally, but Chaz's first doctor had failed to address the issue of nerve and ligament damage. Rika suspected that it may have been purposeful, that or there simply had not been enough time.

Anyway, the nerve damage to Chaz's sword arm had been quite severe. Using the world 'crippled' was far too harsh, but trying out the world 'paralysed' didn't seem right as well. When Chaz had learned of the true damages to his right arm he might have wanted people to think he was calm and composed about it, possibly even a little indignant, but in truth Rika knew that he had dragged himself into his inn room, locked the door, and then wept.

He was a hunter; the sword was his life. He was going to be a carpenter; two hands were a must. He could move his arm and his fingers slightly, but there was no longer any definitive strength in the hand. Chaz could still shake somebody's hand in greeting, but if he tried to hold a cup or a weapon it would slip easily from his lax fingers.

He found himself trapped with an arm that was too dead to be of any great use, but also too alive to warrant amputation. When that android had shoved that sword into him he had done more than threaten Chaz's life; he had taken all of Chaz's dreams away. Now all he could do was carry it about in a sling and try to forget, but that was so very difficult considering the pain issues it caused him. For now he still had that supply of quintamate received on Zelan to deal with the chronic pain, but once that supply ran out Rika had no idea what he would do. It pained her so much as well to see her love living like that, yet there was nothing more she could do to support him.

The doctor also had a look at Hahn's busted jaw and Raja's bruised noggin. The dezorian only had a mild concussion and he was perfectly fine within a day or two, but Hahn had only just removed the wires holding his lower jaw in place barely a week ago. His diet had become extremely restricted ever since he lost the ability to eat most foods properly, so the young man had lost a huge amount of weight. He couldn't go home to Krup either, so the scholar had experienced a great deal of depression whilst waiting for his jaw to heal.

Raja left shortly after Chaz and Hahn were treated for their wounds. It was hard to convince the bishop to stay in one place for long, and he had always wanted to go on a tour of Motavia all by himself. In a sense Raja was pretty safe compared to the other three; safe enough to travel the land without much repercussion. About two weeks since he had left a letter turned up at the Kadary post office, addressed to Rika. After that a letter would arrive weekly detailing Raja's travels of late. Over time the letters had become increasingly bleak. Krup, Monsen, the plate system and the machine centre were now no-go zones. Well, you _could_ go there if you wanted to, but watch out if you were a palman. Martial law had been declared in the desert areas of Motavia.

As had been mentioned before an army had been growing in the desert. As if they had already known the lay of the land they immediately went south and took over the machine centre, then headed north and dug their claws into the quiet town of Krup, finally utilizing a land rover from the centre to cross the quicksand into Monsen and all surrounding areas. The army was small, but very effective and alarming. Nobody had really been harmed yet in great numbers, but who knew what the future may hold?

But everybody was quite certain that all in the army were servants of Siren. They were still trying to figure out what its true purpose was, but Motavia was no longer a free planet anymore. If the army continued to grow, and if their reach got any longer, well, the very thought made Hahn very nervous and worried about his wife, and Chaz would become moody, irritable and frustrated that he wasn't able to help.

They were fugitives, sticking close to Kadary to wait for Raja's letters and hiding out at Chaz's home in Aiedo; a large city that was quite safe from the distant army – for now. The hunter's guild was their strongest defence right now, so even if the army knew where they were they couldn't be touched.

Wren listened to all of this quietly. Times had indeed changed. When Rika was done talking he filled them in on exactly what went down on the space station Zelan, from when he lost contact with his friends and to when he made that emergency distress signal to all available facilities on Motavia. It seemed extremely unlikely that Wren's subjective opinion was going to taint the recount, so the three hunted individuals were sure they were getting nothing but the facts.

Some things he said were met with shock and surprise. "You were going to sacrifice Demi's life just so you could get another shot at killing Siren?" Rika exclaimed, pausing in her work. "Why would you do something like that?"

"But I have already clarified that is not what happened. I did not sacrifice Demi. I relented. Her execution had nothing to do with me." Wren stated simply. Everybody seemed to get stuck on the matter of what he was going to do to Demi, but Wren could not understand why. She was his servant; she would willingly do whatever he saw fit. That was the very nature of being a servant.

Rika continued with what she was doing, letting her hands do the work and leaving her mind to the thinking. Chaz and Hahn were sitting off to the side with their lanterns, being nice and quiet and possibly even catching up on sleep lost after Wren had made his call to them. The numan girl wiped her hands on her slacks. "Wren, would you ever sacrifice yourself for a slim hope if Zelan requested it of you?"

"Yes, certain circumstances permitting."

"Circumstances?" That question had come from Hahn, hovering around at the very edge of the conversation.

"I would have to be assured a suitable replacement was at hand and then I would carry out the order. Please understand my reasons. Life, to an android in regards to another android has relative value. It is not sacred; merely forces like gravity and heat." Wren looked blank, which was his usual expression. "Inherent in that is the reason why this android 'army' you mention would be so dangerous. At the basest level they would not fear destruction or hesitate to take a living life. Regard for the living would have to come from a conditioned outside influence."

"We have to get back at Siren," Chaz mentioned pensively, though darkly, "him and all his servants. I can't believe we were sucker-punched into this situation." He folded his free arm under his sling and lowered his head, staring at his crossed legs. "We were so careless…"

"But we thought everything was over and done with!" Hahn protested, the first person to raise his voice in the spaceport for some time. He slammed his curled fist down against his knee for emphasis. "This was supposed to be finished three years ago! I agreed to come and help you guys explore a worldship, I never wanted to be an exile from my own home with an army just sitting on the doorstep!"

That was quite an obstacle between himself and his wife with his child-to-be. No wonder the young scholar seemed so weary and stressed. Rika looked over to him with sympathy. She wasn't certain exactly when it had happened, but Chaz had stepped down from his position as their leader and she had picked up the slack. There was nothing else for it, really. "Things can just be hard sometimes, you know? They'll start to look up again someday; you just need to keep holding on."

"I would like to hear further details of this android army, if that is possible." Wren asked calmly, unaffected by Hahn's little outburst. As he said this his auto-repair function was reawakened and immediately began its own internal repairs. Thankfully, the percentage of his damages slowly started to drop.

"If you think Siren's going be the leader of it, that's not true. I guess he's much smarter than that. If Siren were hanging about on Motavia we would have singled him out a long time ago, but he stays way up there on Zelan where it's nice and safe, making more soldiers to add to the army. We can't even get close enough to touch him, not without doing the very same thing we did last time and you know how _that_ went." Chaz explained bitterly.

"Do you have an estimation on the size of the enemy?" Wren asked Chaz. The hunter seemed to be the authority on this part of the bad news.

Chaz took a folded piece of paper from his pocket and scanned it quickly, under the light of the lantern. Raja's overtly calligraphic text was difficult to read. He also had his own unpleasant experiences to draw from. "Well, I hear it grows daily. New recruits and stuff; Siren works constantly and probably doesn't need sleep. That's about eighty to a hundred soldiers, but I'm not counting reprogrammed robots and their leader is extremely cautious about casualties. I don't think they've lost a single android since they turned up." He sighed. "Their leader; he's the one who did this to me. He's the one who turned me into this… _cripple._"

"The Marauders?"

"Yeah," Chaz answered without really thinking. "That's what some people have heard them calling themselves. If you go up to the hunter's guild right now you'd find a dozen different reconnaissance missions about Siren's army. Everybody wants information on them but there's just not enough to go around, and it's too dangerous to dig up fresh information. I'd dive right into those missions if I could, but in this state…" He trailed off, unable to finish that sentence. Soon enough he realised something. "… How did you know the name? Nobody's mentioned it yet."

"It was an educated guess. That name was often heard during the Collapse Wars due to the Marauder ability to persevere despite heavy adversity. It was also noted for its synergy between palman and android soldiers." Wren informed them, reaching his memory back into the past. Everything from long ago was just trying to creep back into the present again. "Many centuries ago, when I was merely an infantryman it was the name of the unit I became assigned to. Androids are not very creative. We revive what we are unable to reproduce."

Chaz smiled sardonically. "You should sell all the information you know about them to the hunter's guild. I did. All that's left of that money is what's keeping us going. Isn't _that_ ironic?" He laughed aggressively at the incongruity of it all.

"Chaz, please," Rika said softly, "calm yourself down."

He did as he was told, but anybody could see that the unstable wretchedness was still right there, just beneath the hunter's skin. Chaz became perfectly stoic, his face smoothing out into something that was almost cold righteousness. "I'm only interested in one thing right now, and that's killing the commander of this marauding army. I have to get back at him for what he's done to my arm. I'll relearn the sword with my _left _hand, if I have to, and once he's dead I'll move up to Siren and avenge the deaths of Rune and Demi. I have to, because if I don't-"

"Honey…" Rika began.

He ignored her. "-Then I don't have any right to call myself a protector of Algo. If I can't do something _now_ then I should have just died with the others."

"Major Warren was an outstanding doctor and medic, and a passable soldier, but tactician he is not. If he is not receiving strategic orders from Siren and has decided to fabricate them himself that would be a focal weak point concerning his army." The android hypothesized, surmising that he could jump to a conclusion on this one.

Beside him Rika raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Nobody mentioned the commander's name either. Another educated guess?"

"That is affirmative." Wren replied and then slowly struggled to his feet. He could move again without inflicting damages upon himself, and that was a great relief. His three friends stood also. "I believe that I do hold a great responsibility over what has happened to Algo. I was the one who awoke and underestimated Siren. I was careless. As such, I would do anything to restore order to the system. If it is your plan to fight Siren then I shall go with you."

"It wasn't just you who failed; we all failed." Rika sighed quietly, as Hahn wandered over to the computer terminal Wren had used earlier. The numan girl haphazardly shoved her hands into the pockets of her pants. "Losing you was like losing a member of the family." She muttered.

"We're glad you're back, Wren." Chaz added.

"Hey guys, I just had a kind of unsettling thought." Hahn announced from over at the dead computer monitor. It sounded like he hoped it didn't mean anything, and everything was probably fine, but if it wasn't this antsy feeling crawling all over his skin was perfectly justified. "When Wren sent out that signal to us did he send it to specific locations, or was it anywhere with a working computer system available to him?"

Wren was right there to answer for himself. He was not sure of the relevancy of Hahn's strange question. "The signal was issued to every system within broadcast range, save for Zelan." He said.

This reply was no comfort to Hahn. He made a very strange face, like he was trying not to be sick. "So that includes the machine centre or the plate system too?" He ventured.

After a few moments the realisation spread from Hahn to the other members of their small group. It was like a black curtain, dropping dread upon them. Rika looked to the entranceway, where the faint tinny patter of hundreds of raindrops bombarded the metal surface of the spaceport. The storm was still raging outside, but that wouldn't stop someone from travelling if they were _really_ determined enough. "Do you really think-" Rika started to say.

"-We've already been here nearly three hours!" Chaz cut in.

"Hahn, how long do you think it would take for the Marauders to get to this spaceport based on the last place we saw them?" Rika snapped.

The brown-haired man threw up his hands. "I don't know! Maybe several hours if they left immediately after getting the message? Less if they used special transportation, like a hydrofoil or floaders? They might have missed it anyway; I almost did. It _is_ the middle of the night after all. I was only thinking-"

A strident crash emanated from the entranceway to the spaceport. Wet metal hit the floor. Distant, indistinct voices followed right afterwards. Rika, Chaz and Hahn turned towards the sounds like a trio of hunted animals, bristling at the thought of confrontation. Seconds later they could hear the echo of footsteps, Wren was able to count at least six bodies provided they were all standing on two feet. It looked like their realisation had come just a little too late.

"We have to leave." Rika decided, dropping her voice to a whisper. There was no way she was going to let her words develop an echo now. "Is there another way out of the spaceport besides the front?"

"There is a potential exit at the back of the docks; along the launching strip for the vehicles. This area is open-air, as you should recall. We can escape from there." The android explained.

"Wren, in your condition right now any more exposure to water could kill you! It's too dangerous to let you leave here!"

"I am not concerned about myself. You must leave this place."

"We can't stand here and argue all night!" Hahn hissed.

Oddly enough, it was a distinctly feminine voice which called out to them from the entranceway of the facility. It should have been vaguely familiar to Wren, but at the time he did not pause to consider this. There were more important things to be concerned about. "Hello? Is anybody in there? We're looking for a wren-type who seems to need some help." Nothing could mask the sound of guns being loaded right after the girl had finished speaking. It was a cold, evil sound. A more masculine voice said something and then two others laughed.

Rika moved to the end of the room, peeking out into the corridor slightly. Her eyes narrowed a bit. "Wren, do you think you can run?"

"I am capable."

"Good, let's get out of here. We'll follow you. Lead us to the exit."

So they ran, away to the back of the spaceport. The echoes of their boots on the hard metal floor immediately gave them away, so shouts of surprise and alarm were heard from the soldiers at the doorway. They knew their training. Like dogs they gave chase, guns at the ready.

And at the front was their captain, weapon in hand, shouting.

"Don't let them get away!"


	27. Fortress Wren

Over the course of a month not much had changed on Zelan outwardly, or indeed inwardly, but now that Wren was gone and the master replaced Zelan was working harder than it ever had been in the past seven hundred years. In four weeks and six days Siren had not granted himself a break from his new duties, save for the two or so hours of sleep each night required to keep himself alive. If Siren was anything he was single-minded, driven to whatever purposes he set for himself.

As his servants were now down on the planets enforcing his will and carrying out his way Zelan was to be the hub from which their resources came. Siren was content with managing that and giving out orders from way up there, so whilst minor servants carried out administrative duties he focussed on what he was truly talented at.

Zelan's greatest resource was its many deposits of deceased, abandoned androids. It was like a floating mortuary in the sky, but Siren knew from prior experience that he possessed the gift of life. Not long after his two servants left the space station he had begun the reviving process, dedicating about five or six hours to reconstructing, activating and briefing each individual android. It may seem like a long time to linger on a project, perhaps in almost a perfectionist manner, but fixing three or four servants each day for thirty six days certainly added up.

Nearly all the projects were receptive to his demands. They were of the mind that accepting his Way was a small price to pay for a second chance at life, and with a return to death as an alternative few androids decided to refuse. They felt they owed it to their saviour to offer him whatever they could. Most of them were loaded onto spaceships and sent down to Motavia to become a part of Siren's army, but a select few with no combat skills whatsoever stayed behind and became the staff which managed Zelan.

A system was slowly folding into place and Siren knew that the more servants he made the stronger his influence became. The army had already claimed a goodly part of Motavia as a base, and the anti-layan directive upon Dezoris was progressing faster than he had initially anticipated. The soldiers were good at land capturing but Mieus was the sole operative on the planet of ice. Her eagerness in layan slaying was definitely pleasing.

At the moment he was between projects, just after dismissing a completed android and heading back to the blocks for a fresh shell. He had to walk through the main control room to get to his destination, but he did not mind this as it gave him a chance to check up on anything and make sure Zelan was functioning correctly. Five servants were managing the control room, splitting the job that Wren had taken on solely into easier chunks of work. Only three were palmanoid, the other two blocky shapeless robots with maintenance skills greater than their more aesthetic colleages.

One of the more palmanish androids turned slightly in her chair when she detected Siren passing by. A lot of design had gone into her features many ages ago, with fluffy ginger hair and freckles. Her voice was smoother than her physical appearance seemed to be. "Master, there is a transmission waiting for you from Motavia, via satellite three. Encryption code is zero eight six."

Those specifications were familiar to him. The next shell would just have to wait for a little while. Siren walked over to the female android's control panel and placed a hand upon the back of her chair, leaning over. "Very well, put me on to him, Debbie. How long has he been waiting for a connection?" He knew the names of each of his servants, no matter how insignificant they were.

"Only for about ten minutes. Just one moment, please. Connecting via satellite three…" The girl announced and made about half a dozen keystrokes on her terminal, sending commands to orbital communications satellites hundreds of thousands of miles away. The network around Zelan was still good, surprisingly; it just needed the manpower to keep itself running.

The other service androids in the main control room relaxed their focus on the tasks they were working upon and half listened-in on the transmission that was to take place. There was Debbie and a blond male android with a rather frail build, and a shorter younger android girl with long green hair. Whistler also watched with its long extendable eye, perched beside an arthropod assisting it with some program. After a few moments of buffering an image appeared on Zelan's computer screen, showing an image of a desert landscape at night. The resolution was good, so one could easily see the dark shapes of sand dunes and the open starry sky.

A voice said; "Is this thing on?"

Another voice replied; "I think so, sir. The red light is on." The transmission shook as if somebody with poor photography skills were recording with a handheld apparatus.

Siren did not seem perturbed by any apparent display of ineptitude. He had just successfully completed a project, so he was in a fairly amiable mood. "We are receiving you." He assured his servants on Motavia, waiting patiently to get to the business of this call.

The first voice made an 'Oh!' sound and said; "Point it this way, corporal. Try to keep it steady. Thanks a lot."

"Yes sir."

There was some brief camera manipulation and the shot stabilized on Commander Warren, standing nearly alone in the desert. He gave Siren a curt salute. "Good evening, Master. I'm really sorry about the time, but I have to make an emergency report. I didn't think it could wait until the morning."

"What is the matter? Is it the motavians again? I believe I ordered you to take care of them." Siren assumed. The motavians had been an obstacle ever since the Marauders were formed, attacking anything vaguely unfamiliar close to their village. The motavians from Molcum were astoundingly paranoid of anything threatening their home, even though his army hadn't the slightest interest in their piddling little tent colony. The only way to conquer an obstacle was to walk straight over it, so that was what Siren had commanded his servant to do.

Were Warren not at attention he would have shaken his head. "No Master, this isn't about the motavians, though we did deal with them earlier in the night. They refused to leave us alone so we torched their village. They'll be too busy with reconstruction to even _consider_ coming after us, and when they're done they'll think twice about messing with us again."

"What was the casualty rate?" Siren asked.

Warren seemed confused for at this. "What do you mean? Us or them? Either way the rate of casualty was zero. I'm not prepared to put my soldiers in danger and we herded all the motavians out into the plaza before we set the tents on fire. It's one thing rending them homeless, but killing them just for being a nuisance is unnecessarily cruel."

His master considered this. "Yes…" He agreed at last, ponderously. "In the long run that would seem like a wise decision. Do not encourage in them a greater cause for vengeance. The motavians could be useful. They are very resourceful. Our enemies are the layans and we need to focus on the layans, now what was it that you wished to report to me?"

At this point Warren became a little reluctant, but he had not arranged this transmission to talk about nothing. "Master Siren, the wren-type who formerly controlled Zelan is still alive. We received a call from him five hours ago. He sounded seriously damaged and on the verge of collapse, but yeah, he's alive somehow. I sent a division of soldiers to the transmission location but I haven't heard back from them yet." He confessed.

"You assured me of his demise. Were you deceiving me, commander?" He questioned suspiciously. Warren did not have a perfect track history when it came to telling the truth and Siren was well aware of that. Despite this he didn't really think Warren would lie, especially after reporting it to his master himself, but Siren needed more details. There was no anger. Zelan already belonged to them. No singular android could stop the avalanche that had already been set in motion.

But Warren seemed to take the accusation seriously enough. "Of course not, sir! I executed him myself! I took him down to Motavia and threw him into the ocean! The calculated chances of him surviving that fate are zero point zero zero zero one, just one in ten thousand! You gotta believe me; I was pretty surprised when I heard about it, too. I would never disobey my master. My life is to serve."

Well, he did seem rather convinced that he had not made a mistake in the choice of his execution. Perhaps a shot to the chest would have been better. "Even a miniscule percent is not a certainty." He reprimanded the other wren-type as Warren cringed a bit, like a scolded child. "Have you taken any affirmative action regarding this new information?"

"I ordered Cassie to take a handful of soldiers and hunt him down. If Forren's already half dead then I don't worry too much for their safety. He'd be unarmed and Cassie's an extremely competent girl." The android in gold armour hung his head in shame. "Master, I take full responsibility for this slip-up. Forren was my responsibility and I let him escape. I hope you will be able to forgive me for this."

"Just correct your mistake and continue with your prime directive, commander." Siren ordered as he straightened up from where he had been leaning against Debbie's seat. "I hope you have not forgotten what your ultimate goal is."

Warren looked back up at the camera with an air of dedication. He spoke as if he had repeated this statement many times. "My goal is to assume control of Motavia in the name of my Master Siren, and of Orakio Sa Ruik. Once I take over this planet I will hand control over to you. It will be yours to command." A cold desert wind blew across the transmission screen, creating the faintest of hazes. Were they regular palmans Warren and his cameraman would have blinked or flinched from the stinging sand, but as androids they seemed not to notice.

Like the wind Warren's prime directive was chilling. Knowing it would have unnerved Chaz and his comrades to the bone, though they probably had an inkling of that already through the Marauders' actions. Siren was glad that his servant wasn't losing perspective due to the smaller picture. "Good. Get back to your duties. I too have work to be done." He instructed.

"Yes, my master. I'll contact you again once this business with Forren has been cleared up. Good night to you."

The screen went dark. The transmission had ended. That was a whole load of effort over nothing important. If Warren was truly intelligent he should have dealt with the matter first before alerting his superior about it, that way he could have attained exoneration without an interval of worry. That young android had been extremely reluctant to assume the position he held now, but he needed to learn. They all needed to learn.

When he turned around all the other workers were back to slogging away at their tasks, save for one. Briefly Siren ordered Debbie to follow their example and get right back to work, and then he made for the exit at the other side of the control room. The lack of motion from the idle servant caused him to halt. Oh yes, of course. He smiled.

Siren stood beside the servant on the far end of the room. She could not leave her seat because her left leg was shackled to the terminal chair. Siren had many voluntary servants but one involuntary one, sort of, she had no choice but to work or be put back into a limitless sleep. In a way she was one of Siren's most precious servants, for she represented a victory for the orakians over the hated layan scum. It made Siren feel good even just by looking at her.

"I'm sure you heard the broadcast right now regarding that wren-type's survival." Siren said.

Demi nodded mutely, keeping her eyes straight ahead at the computer screen and refusing to look at him.

The red-haired android chuckled softly, cruelly. He touched Demi gently on the shoulder. "Don't get your hopes up. He'll be dead along with the others soon enough."

Then he left, leaving the android girl alone with her restricted duties, assigned to her more as a torture than anything else, because for as long as Siren was around he would always get what he wanted, and he would always have his way.

†††

The halls of the spaceport had once been familiar to Chaz and his company in the daylight hours, when they had the time to slowly find their own way around, but in the darkness of a dead facility with a pack of armed gunmen on their heels everything tended to become a grey adrenaline-filled blur. Wren was in the lead and guiding the others through the layout of the spaceport with Rika running just behind him, Chaz at her back and Hahn bringing up the rear.

There were no lights in the hallway and they had had to discard the kerosene lamps in favour of speed and stealth. As long as the rain continued Wren wasn't able to go outside, but if they stayed in the spaceport any longer they would surely be caught. Everybody followed the sound of the person in front of them, their footsteps thudding on the hard metal floor, praying that if they kept up the pace with minimal noise they just might escape with their lives.

The footsteps of six soldiers far behind them were what kept them going, and an important seventh one was in their midst. They were all fighters from the heart of the collapse wars, trained infantrymen and snipers put to sleep after one war and awoken for the next. Four of them carried bolt-action rifles; one more held an easier pump-action shotgun, and one of the smaller androids was equipped with a sharpshooter complete with night-vision scope and silencer. It was a rather useless choice when it came to chasing shadowed figures moving in the dark.

Hahn was trying his hardest to keep up with the others, but he was a rather weak and sick man nowadays and continued to lag behind. Chaz heard the laboured panting of his friend and sensed that he was falling behind, so the youth halted for a shadow of a heartbeat and threw his good arm backwards, grabbing the scholar by a fold of his white shirt and dragging Hahn along beside him.

A voice echoed up along the metal hallway, emanating from the side of the enemy. They did not sound even the slightest bit winded. "Halt! If you continue to flee then we will be forced to shoot at you! Forren of Zelan, we have come for your head!"

Chaz and company could not, of course, oblige them. The hunter knew what would happen to them if they were caught, and frankly if they were running away from the bullets there'd be a better chance they could dodge them. He didn't want to admit it but Hahn was slowing him down, but he was never ever going to let go. "Where the hell are we running to, Wren?" Chaz called, trying to ignore everything that was behind him and focus on the path ahead.

Wren was still trying to gather his bearings internally. Had he any knowledge of the experience he would have felt like a patient awakened from a coma only to be forced to run a marathon, orienteering all the way. His consciousness had yet to catch up with his body and situation, and though Rika had done an amazing job with limited resources he was still seriously damaged. It took the android a moment to respond. "We are en-route to the launching strip. We should be proceeding in the correct direction. You may escape from there."

They had already gone over this only minutes earlier. Rika frowned. "We're not leaving here without you, not after finally finding you again. Do you think we could fight these guys? Maybe push them into a corner and ambush them?" As they turned a corner and passed through a motion-activated doorway Rika dropped back to the end of the line to keep an eye on Chaz and Hahn, her advanced sense of hearing trying to gauge the distance between themselves and their pursuers.

It was an optimistic thought but not a practical one. Only Hahn and Rika were armed, with Hahn exhausted already and panting. Though she was strong Rika could not face seven adversaries on her own. "At the moment an offensive stance would not be wise. Retreat is the only sensible option. Over here." Wren interjected, but when they passed a door in the hallway the android made a sharp right and crashed his way through the set of closed doors.

Some of the doors still seemed to have some small power, but not many of them. This one had no hydraulics installed, so to Wren it was like smashing through thin cardboard. Behind it lay another corridor leading away from the centre of the spaceport at a right angle. The twisted remains of the security doors would not go unnoticed for long, but the other three jumped over the scrap metal and followed their guide, hoping very dearly that Wren still knew what he was doing.

This corridor was also pocked with closed entrances into other unknown rooms. The android stopped suddenly at about the fourth or fifth entrance and before the other three team-mates could skid to a halt Wren had wrenched the doors open in a much more careful manner and ushered Rika, Chaz and Hahn inside. He went in last, pulling the rigid slide doors closed behind him. If they were lucky it wouldn't look like it had been tampered with in any way.

They had been ushered into what looked like a locker room, possibly a place where the spaceship crew were meant to prepare before they boarded the ship. The side wall was lined with doubly-wide large lockers built to fit in space suits and personal belongings, there was a grating close to the ceiling probably leading straight into the air ventilation system, and lastly two long metal benches gave people a simple place to sit. It was funny how nowadays the three exiles looked for hiding places over anything else whenever they entered a new room, but that was just life for them now, they guessed.

The one thing they noticed was that there were no exits, only the doorway which led back the way they had came.

Rather than thinking of this place as a dead end Hahn chose to think of it as an opportunity to hide. They probably only had seconds to act. Still breathing hard from the taxing and frightening run Hahn made his way over to the lockers and pulled one open, gladdened that the inside was bare of junk. Only a loose sheet of metal that was part of the dismantled shelving took up space, but not much. There was plenty of room for Hahn to wedge himself inside so that was what he did, slamming the locker door behind him.

Rika's quick thinking offered herself and her fiancé a more creative method of concealment. She leapt up onto one of the benches and yanked out the grating which connected to the air duct, lithely slipping herself inside. Chaz pulled his dead arm out of its sling and followed her onto the bench, offering it to the numan girl so she could pull him up into the duct with her. He grabbed the grate before he moved and fit it back into place after a few seconds of struggling, trying very carefully not to accidentally kick the girl cramped behind him in the stomach.

All in all they moved like rats with the spotlight suddenly trained on them. Wren didn't even try to keep up with them, it was not in his programming to flee so easily and in his state of disrepair rapid reaction would damage him terribly. He was honestly surprised that he hadn't collapsed earlier. No, if Wren could not escape this spaceport and escape was the only option then he had already lost. The least he could do was make sure his friends made it out safely. It was merely enough to know they were still alive.

Before they knew it heavy footsteps thundered past the room. It was only for a few seconds but the android tried to count one, two, three and four soldiers running past, still thinking they were hot on the trail and only moments away from a capture. The corridor was long and winding and stretched to an entirely different area of the spaceport, so it was unlikely they would try doubling back. They'd managed to slip through.

A minute of silence passed. In the locker Hahn sighed in relief and rested his forehead, damp with cold sweat against the slatted door, while Rika and Chaz struggled with one another to look out of the grating at the same time. Without any warning Wren's right leg buckled and he found himself dropping down to one knee, unable to move anymore. There was too much sand still in his joints and now it might take a little more than a recover to get himself moving again.

His friends witnessed Wren's sudden collapse. "Hey, are you okay?" Rika called out in the loudest whisper she could manage, getting up on her hands and knees and nearly crushing Chaz up against the air duct's ceiling. She began to loosen the grating again so she could drop back down into the room, but…

Another pair of footsteps echoed outside the corridor. They were slower, almost thoughtful, as if somebody was walking with a great deal of patience and care. It stopped right outside of the doorway. Chaz, Rika and Hahn stared at the entranceway as though they wanted to bore right through it and see what was on the other side, but perhaps they might meet the gaze of somebody else and that thought just scared them to their toes.

Hahn could practically _feel_ his rapid heartbeat coming up through his throat. If an android like Wren opened fire in a room as small as this there was no way this metal locker would shield himself from attack for long. What was going on out there? Why had it suddenly become so quiet?

Before Hahn could hope that the person in the corridor might have gone away a creaking noise came from the doorway and it slowly slid open, guided by a single hand. No palman had the strength to do something like that. Wren glanced up at the entranceway and tried to stand, but he couldn't. Even with his repair systems working as fast as they currently could it'd be some minutes before he could rise again. He was trapped.

A girl walked into the room. She was android, of medium height and with short blonde hair. Her armour was blue-tinged titanium with undertones of white polymer, and she was carrying a sabre at her hip. Perhaps her appearance was a little underwhelming when Chaz and company were expecting their imminent deaths, but she was still an enemy nonetheless.

She took three careful steps inside. "… A lot of the soldiers are like terriers; they'll chase anything moving so long as they believe there's a chance of catching it. It's better to be attentive and listen, that's how I know all three of you are in here. The sounds of your hearts beating are unmistakable." Though her voice was slightly flat there was an undertone of amusement beneath it.

"Four." Wren interrupted.

The girl hesitated. "Excuse me?"

Instead of waiting patiently for the repairs to finish Wren took a stab at chance and tried to stand again, lucking out and managing with only a single sway. He made eye contact with the girl and wasn't surprised, though he probably should have been. With Mieus and Warren already running all over the worlds when they should be dead why not one more? He tried to steady himself. "There are three people in this room and myself. I will not grant you access to them. You will have to get through me first."

The connection was made through the ages, through centuries and millennia. Something clicked in the girl's mind, just as it had already clicked in Wren's mind. Her eyes widened a bit but she smiled. "Well, nobody told me the forren-type we were meant to capture was _you_, colonel. This is pretty ironic. It's really been a very long time, but I don't take orders from you anymore."

She stepped towards him but Wren did not back away. At this point he would have shot her had he a gun, or activated an internal offensive system were they not removed. He was as powerless as a palman who could barely stand on his own. "I do not appreciate irony, Cassie." He said. "I never have. You are a servant of Siren now, I suppose."

"The servant of a servant, at least. A hierarchy is being assembled into place but it's a better position than the one our government gave me. I haven't been ordered to kill any of you just yet, but you do have to come with me. In your condition right now I wouldn't resist." Cassie informed him. Wren did not budge, but whether it was because he couldn't or did not want to was unclear.

Cassie began to circle him slowly, taking deliberate steps. "The colonel I remember from a thousand years ago was a ruthless, cold pragmatist who understood and adhered to all the rules. Now I hear he's a filthy layan, whatever the heck a layan is supposed to be. It doesn't matter. All I know is that Siren wants you dead, so Warren wants you dead, so I want you to come with me. The other three, I guess, are not important right now. They don't figure into my orders."

The mysterious girl's description of him sounded to Chaz and his friends an awful lot like somebody else they knew, somebody who _they_ wanted dead. It also sounded like she was willing to ignore Wren's friends in order to take Wren himself away. Rika flattened Chaz up against the air duct for the second time. "No!" She hissed quietly. "We're finally getting people together again! We can't let her take him away!"

"What can we do? We're barely even armed!" Chaz moaned softly as Rika wedged her elbow into his gut.

"One of your daggers is in my back pocket. You can use one, can't you? Go ahead, take it." Rika told him, and then there was a whole lot of squirming and fumbling as Chaz attempted to do just that. The difficulty was in trying to keep everything totally silent.

"Siren says he's going to liberate our race." Cassie continued as she paced, circumnavigating her new prisoner. "He said that we've all been put to sleep because we were not needed anymore, regardless of our desire to live. We all want to live again without being ordered about by a government which disregards basic individual rights. I'm not quite sure of the logistics behind this liberation but freedom is a necessity that I _will_ definitely fight for."

"You should not place faith in a faction that you do not completely understand. Cassie, Siren harbours a dementia hidden beneath a façade of righteousness and justice. I am beginning to fear that he plans to start a war; a recreation of the Collapse Wars in this new millennium." Wren answered calmly. He felt like Cassie probably did, completely lost but finding his way all over again after a period of long disorientation. They both had very different guides.

Cassie now stood behind him, between Wren and the line of empty lockers. She folded her arms, seemingly unruffled by her old superior's words. "Maybe I don't place faith in Siren. I've only met him once, briefly when he brought me back to life. What I _do _support and trust are the Marauders and my commander. My loyalties are a little closer to home. Now come with me. If you can't walk without aid I'll summon some soldiers to help you. If you refuse we'll bring you back in pieces."

That request sounded much more like a command. She unsheathed the steel sabre from her belt and pointed it at him. Wren did not react to this but it was still the last straw for somebody else in the room. As Rika was prepared to leap out of the air duct to attack with her claws the locker door behind Cassie swung open with a clang. Hahn burst out of it swinging the sheet of shelving metal like a club, uttering a hoarse yell which caused Cassie to whirl around suddenly. The piece of metal smashed across her face with a hollow booming sound and the android staggered, nudged backwards by the blow.

This attack placed her within the reach of Wren's arm. Hahn couldn't have hoped to injure the girl but that element of surprise was enough. Wren reached out and grabbed Cassie by the shoulder, spinning her around once and drawing his fist back in preparation for an attack. He may not have had his weapons anymore, but a solid punch was universal. "Stay down." He ordered as Hahn got out of the way quickly, then he decked her.

There was enough of a second for her to look at him, but Cassie did not seem startled. She was sent reeling into the locker that Hahn had leapt out of, sabre and all, until her back clanged against the metal wall and down she went, sliding into a sprawl. The second shock knocked her straight into emergency shutdown, but knowing far too well how androids were made Wren was sure that wouldn't last for long.

Hahn stood next to Wren and looked over the girl as Chaz and Rika climbed out of the air duct. It would have been rather funny to watch were anybody looking in that direction, but at least Rika landed on the floor well, right side up. Hahn side glanced at the android still conscious but Wren was completely unreadable. "Who is that?" He asked. Following that conversation it had felt like this blonde android was not a stranger to his friend. With Siren and his accursed way around he was a little suspicious of_ anything_ with nuts and bolts in them nowadays.

As they were joined by the other two members of their party Wren attempted to explain as best as he could for all the time they had left. "Her name is Cassie. She was a nightwatchman at Paseo maximum security prison during the war, but she was eventually conscripted as a sniper in the hundred and fifty fifth special op battalion. Siren must have revived and recruited her while I was away." He said. He neglected to mention any parts that he deemed were unimportant. They were, as previously stated, not worth the effort.

Honestly there was no time to dwell upon it anyway. Rika felt like the timekeeper in their newly-formed party but _somebody _had to do it. "We don't have time for talking. If her soldiers have been fooled and run off down the hallway then we can backtrack to the entrance and escape out the front door! How long do you think she'll stay down?"

"Cassie-types regenerate at a faster pace than wren-types. I estimate three or four minutes based upon the degree of which she was damaged."

"What if there are more soldiers waiting at the entrance? It's way too risky and I don't trust any of these machines anymore. Let's just run to the launching strip like we were doing before." Chaz growled. He didn't want to run into an armed ambush and drag Rika along with him. With only one dagger, a small ceramic thing with a slightly dull edge he would barely be able to defend himself, let alone anyone else.

Rika thought that her idea was better because the entrance was much closer than the exit, but she caved in to Chaz's wishes. It was good enough to see that the youth was trying to make commanding decisions again after so many weeks. She relented. "Okay. What matters most is that we move. Wren, try and recover yourself and let's get out of here."

That was easier said than done. Wren made the necessary preparations to activate his recovery system but hardly managed more than a fifteen percent improvement, when usually the android could bring himself to complete functionality using that skill. Perhaps the greatest irony was that his recovery system was completely unable to repair itself. They left the body of Cassie lying there in the locker and together they vacated they room, intent to backtrack to the main corridor and head northwards to the launching strip from there.

But Cassie was just a little more cunning than Chaz and company anticipated and Wren remembered. Most of her squad had run willy-nilly down the hallway to catch the intruders, and Cassie herself had crept into the room to investigate for herself, but all in all that only left five out of seven soldiers accounted for. Two had gone missing, but in all actuality they weren't very far away.

Before the girl had entered the room she had posted two riflemen right outside the locker room doors with the express order not to burst in unless she called for assistance, no matter _what_ they heard. The poor Eldar and Shirren types kept hearing talking and then one person screaming then a series of clangs, then a heavy thump. They wanted to go inside but orders prevented them. Cassie was strict but if anything happened to her they would have to explain it to their commander, and they didn't want that.

Right when general concern was about to override their orders to stand by the doors were yanked open and a slew of targets streamed out, a thin man with long brown hair, a shorter youth with his arm in a sling, a young girl with pointed ears and finally their main target. They came out with their backs to them and ran, heading the way they had came towards the main entrance. It was like watching a group of targets line up, ready to be executed.

Their training kicked in. Without much more than a moment of processing the two gunmen raised their rifles and fired, taking careful aim. Chaz and Hahn nearly seized up as they heard the gunshots behind them, loud and reverberating in the echoing darkness of the corridor. Rika continued to push them onwards with a few sharp words and hoped that Wren was following them, even as the bullets zipped past like zinging, whistling wasps.

As the tallest and broadest member of their team Wren acted as the perfect shield, guarding them from the rear. He felt several small impacts as bullets from the pre-laser era slammed into his back, unhindered by the armour that was no longer there. Wren nearly stumbled but did not miss a beat, keeping up with his friends. To him these bullets were far from fatal, which could hardly be said for his more palman allies.

Wren wound up moving in such a slight way that a bullet missed him, but ended up hitting somebody else in front. Rika heard the deadly whistle but there was no way she could avoid it, even with her spectacular numan reflexes. Immediately it felt like somebody had raked a dagger across her arm, leaving a burn that only stung at first, but descended down into a deep white-hot fire. She cried out in pain as Chaz before her was faintly spattered with her blood.

This made her hesitate only for a heartbeat, squeezing her eyes shut and cringing, but then Wren grabbed her by the opposing shoulder and shoved her forward, regardless of the injury. Electricity kept crackling down along the android's exposed circuitry, interrupted by the bullets in his back. If that couldn't stop him from moving then Rika had to continue too. The enemy soldiers were only a stone's throw away, meaning their bullets were _much_ closer and they could fire and run at the same time, although that seemed to be taxing their aim.

As Rika pressed her free hand up against the wound to stem the bleeding the androids behind them started to shout. They had commanding voices. One of them sounded uncannily like Wren. "What have you done with the Captain? Stop running and put your hands up! We'll shoot to kill!" Fortunately, however, Chaz and company hit a corner and fell out of the sight of their rifles, the bullets smacking into the wall and forging a series of tiny little holes.

And yet they were still pursued. Chaz desperately wanted to turn around and find out why Rika had screamed, but if he slowed down even the slightest bit he'd ruin their marching order and possibly even cause a crash. "Rika! Are you okay?" He called behind him, his heart pounding in his chest with equal parts fear and sheer exhaustion. If anything happened to her he didn't know what he'd do…

Before she could reply the gunfire burst into life again. Rika wasn't sure if the soldiers would ever stop. Would they follow them to the outskirts of the spaceport? Beyond that? Would they follow until they were out of ammunition, or everyone was dead? They would never get tired. "I'm fine. Keep on running. Don't look behind you." She urged him, trying hard to follow her own advice. It was difficult, the burn was spreading up her arm and down into her hand, turning her fingers numb.

They were making progress. Two more bullets struck Wren in the back and arm and he slowed, coming to a brief stop. The gunshots were hurting him but in truth they were no more than collective bruises; a pain but hardly a serious wound. He could not leave the spaceport anyway, so why was he running, especially while he still had several ounces of fight left in him?

Without alerting his friends of his decision Wren turned around and stomped back the way he came, advancing threateningly on the soldiers of the Marauder army. This was not something they had anticipated. They skidded to an abrupt halt and the Eldar curtly glanced to the Shirren in confusion, in what could have been surprise and fear. This was their target in clear view but the bullets hadn't been stopping him, and now he was moving in for an attack.

Wren, as a forren-type, was built like a tank. Even without his armor he was formidable and huge, for as sirens were built for stealth and warrens for attack, forrens were geared for solid, steel-wall defense. The name Forren was a truncation of Fortress Wren, and aptly named. He came at them with a slow stagger, bullets ricocheting and bouncing off his arms and chest with electricity arcing out from live wires. The fact that his balance was compromised made him seem all the more formidable to those watching.

The closer he got to them the less useful their rifles became. The Eldar was hastily trying to reload his weapon but the empty magazine had jammed in the gun; a common problem when those old rifles were not properly cared for and regularly maintained. The Shirren dropped his empty weapon on the floor, backing away. He had only the build of a teenager's when compared to Wren's stature and a rifle wasn't about to protect him anymore.

"You also… must stay down." Wren informed them carefully, before the beatdown began.

Around about the time he was starting up the fight Chaz and company reached the intersection that divided their two pathways. To the left was the path to the entranceway, to the right was the road to the launching strip. They stopped there for a moment to catch their breath, and it was then they noticed they were not being followed anymore and Wren was gone. When their footsteps finally stopped echoing all became quiet once more.

Blood was dripping between Rika's clenched fingers over the wound, down along her arm and leaving little droplets upon the floor. Chaz gasped when he saw the injury and rushed to her, trying to prise the girl's hand away so he could get a better look at the wound. The youth was pale, his voice shaky, though nowhere near as badly as his fiancée. "Rika, are you alright? Let me see, let me see…"

She pulled away from him. "Don't touch it! Ugh, it's fine, we can check on it later. What happened to the guards? Where are they?"

"I don't know." Hahn panted, his hands on his knees. "I thought we were goners. I could have sworn one of those bullets flew right by my ear! One step to the right and I mightn't be here right now." There were tears in the young scholar's eyes.

"Where's Wren disappeared to? Please don't tell me he's decided to fight them off alone!" Rika moaned. It thrust an entirely new decision into her hands, and right now she was in no condition to dwell on choices. The wound she was carrying was far from deadly, but the pain left her mind in a red foggy haze. She glared in the direction of the branching hallway. "Then again he could have collapsed from disrepair, but I don't remember hearing a crash or anything like that earlier."

"Let's just get you somewhere safe so we can get that wound properly treated." Chaz implored her gently. Rika had become progressively grumpier in the past few weeks, but then again they all had, yet Rika's moods were the most prolonged and darkest. The one upside they had was that it brought out the leadership skills from within her. It made Chaz feel helpless, so maybe that was why he had become so.

Rika shook her head. "We have to go back and find him." She said.

Chaz tried to put his foot down on this. "No. We have to get out of here. I'm _not_ going to let you become a cripple like me. C'mon Hahn, we're going." He took Rika by the shoulder and tried to push her along towards the entrance. Hahn followed them quietly, wisely deciding not to mention that their route kept changing faster than the weather.

The entrance was clear of ambushing reinforcements and permanently open due to the destruction of its hydraulics earlier in the evening. Wasteland stretched out from beyond that, but above anything else the sky was clearing. The storm had blown over and the rain had stopped. Hahn stared up at the sky with relief as Chaz tried to hold Rika still enough to administer a quick gires to her injury. "It's a shame," he said to his friends behind him, "with the sky clear we really _could_ have taken Wren with us. Dammit."

"Ow! Stop it, Chaz!" Rika cried as she tried to shove him away again. He managed to pull her hand away and it wasn't a pretty sight underneath. Thankfully the bullet had only scraped across her upper arm instead of embedding itself right into the flesh. There was no bullet to excise, much to Chaz's relief, because taking a knife to Rika in order to dig it out of the wound just made his stomach turn uncomfortably.

"Well, maybe Wren will show up after all." Chaz commented softly as he worked. "Don't be so negative, you guys."

"If he doesn't turn up in the next minute we have to escape anyway. Don't forget that girl and those other soldiers are still in there. She's probably already out of that locker and after us." Hahn sighed.

"Actually she is probably attempting to reassemble her minions from the jumble they are in now." Wren interrupted as he joined up with his friends. It had been hard catching up with the rest of them after spending time subduing their pursuers and he had been quite certain they wouldn't wait for him, as that was the logical decision to make, yet here they were at the entranceway beyond all logic. He was grateful for that.

Chaz, Rika and Hahn looked at him in relieved surprise. He was limping and resembled a machine centre reject, but at least his face was clear and neutral. The hunter finished up his treatment of Rika and wiped his bloody hands on his coat. "The rain's stopped. Will you come with us?" He asked.

"I shall. I will follow you until I am able to assume control of Zelan once more. If you plan to fight Siren I will gladly assist you. Now it has become, as you palmans say, personal." Wren replied.

"It's good to have you back. Now all we have to do is fine Demi and Rune."

"You have no leads regarding their whereabouts, whatsoever?"

"None at all." Rika answered sadly. "It's like they've fallen off the face of Algo. Frankly we'd run out of hope that we would ever see you three again."

"They are most likely dead. _I _was meant to be dead." Wren concluded with an utter lack of tact.

An uncomfortable silence unfolded around them, and with that they left the entrance to the spaceport and out into the still-damp wasteland, blanketed by the cloudy starry sky.

There were still some hours left until the dawn.

†††

Cassie kicked the two felled soldiers hard in their collective side as the rest of her small squadron stood around behind her, shamed. They had been given a good working-over but they weren't dead; merely injured enough to make them wish they were dead. Their captain wasn't angry but there was disappointment and even a hint of disgust, a granule of that directed at herself for being taken down so easily. "Get up you pieces of junk. What happened to you?"

The Shirren and the Eldar tried to get up but they were too tangled into each other to budge. They tried to disentangle themselves without much success, some of their limbs bent in such a way that they were lying in the wrong direction. "The… that forren-type attacked us. He was so strong, we didn't have a chance to defend ourselves…" The Eldar moaned, crushed up against the corner of the bent corridor.

"We're so sorry, Captain. They got away because of us." The Shirren apologised dejectedly on behalf of the both of them. He flinched when the other android moved in a way that he couldn't bear. "Argh, stop that! That's my arm you're twisting, you jerk!"

It was quite a spectacle. Cassie didn't think she could look down on them any longer without feeling sorry for them. She snapped her fingers loudly, causing the four hale soldiers to snap to attention. "Don't just stand there, help your comrades. They'll have to go back to Zelan for repairs. You can explain the reason for your injuries to Master Siren himself."

Separating the two was like trying to untie a knot. Moving one of them injured the other and vice versa, but after some figuring out and cooperation through the soldiers they gradually began to resemble broken toys rather than a jumbled mess. Cassie exhaled deeply as she watched, out of sheer annoyance rather than a need for air. She took the handheld communicator she carried from her belt and walked some distance down the corridor to get away from the sounds of the recovery effort. She waited patiently, hoping for a connection. There was always the chance that her commander might not be available.

After a minute or so her call was picked up but the reception was bad, possibly due to the distance or calling in a place like the spaceport. It would have to do. "Hello? Yes, Captain Cassie reporting in regarding our progress. It's not good news. Yes… yes… I know that, but regardless you're not going to like what you hear. The forren-type got away. He had allies with him and they outmanoeuvred me and my men. I'm sorry, commander. We have failed."

She placed a hand on her hip and faced away from the others as she continued. "You should have mentioned that the target android was the colonel. We would have been much more prepared. …Yeah, it was a shock to me too. He's really been around for the past thousand years? No wonder he's almost unrecognisable now. …Uh huh, two of my soldiers were beaten into junk heaps and I crashed for a bit, but I'm fine now. … Aw, Warren, don't blame yourself for what's happened here. You can't be in every place at once."

There was a cheer from the soldiers as their comrades were freed and shared amongst the rest of them, two androids supporting each of the broken ones by the arms. Their rifles were ruined and useless, so they left them there. The captain looked over her shoulder at them for a moment just to make sure they were okay. "… Don't worry, we'll be fine. I just hope you can forgive us for the problem we've made. We will be back at the base by tomorrow evening. I'll give you a more detailed report them. Bye. Over and out."

She switched off the communicator and regarded it pensively. "Hey." Cassie stated loudly to get the attention of the others. "Do you think we are capable of pursuing them, even now?"

"It's unlikely." One soldier answered, who had more of a tactical background than anyone else present. "Once they leave the facility they have a three hundred and sixty range of motion and we do not know where their allies are located. We don't have the manpower for that kind of interception, and even if we did strike out in any particular direction the chances that it would become a wild goose chase are high."

Cassie nodded. She didn't require a professional to tell her that. "Well, Warren did say that if we missed them here chances are that he'll turn up again a second time soon enough. We will just have to wait and redeem ourselves then."

The girl put her communicator away and walked off to the entrance of the spaceport, her soldiers following slowly as they were carrying their injured friends. They at least had a direction to go.

They were going home.


	28. Snow

Rune had travelled on many different caravans throughout Dezoris before, without sled, sleigh or ice digger it was one of the only safe ways to travel through the intrepid wilderness. The esper had never seen the caravans this fortified before, warding against the weather, against wild animals enraged by the storm, and of course against the Red Devil that many had heard of but few had seen.

Armed dezorian and palman guards walked along beside armoured carriages creaking in the snow, pulled along by trained rajago and laden with food and valuables. They were wary and had squinted eyes, trying to see through the blizzard before them. The futsnata spears they carried were double-pronged and deadly; gleaming in the cold. It had cost Rune nearly all of the money Laerma had given him to legitimately sneak his way onto the caravan, because in his weakened condition right now he didn't want to risk facing anybody with spears and a grudge against stowaways.

The money wasn't his anyway, so he was glad to give it away, save for a few meseta used to buy him a drink for warmth and for courage. That Torinco twelve year he had had in Aiedo felt like it had been in a previous life, separated by the coma. On this day Rune Walsh found himself in a snow-weed padded cargo carriage, surrounded by crates of food and furs, blankets and cured meat, sitting cross-legged alongside four other passengers and sharing a small portable flame.

It was cosier in there than Rune had expected. The cargo blocked the cold winds out and the weeded floor made it soft and comfortable to sit on, and the general heat from other living bodies raised the temperature of the room. They would have broken into the fur and blanket crates as soon as the caravan left the city if the guards didn't check on the cargo periodically, and nobody really fancied being thrown out into the storm.

His new travelling companions were all palmans, all male, of varying ages and creeds. The youngest looked no more than thirteen years old and was thin and tired; dreary-eyed, and the oldest seemed in his sixties but was in no way frail; a time hardened adventurer with salt-and-pepper beard and hair. There was also another man around about Rune's own age with shaggy dark blond hair; and a very large guy who was taking up a lot of space and fire.

Another person would have made the carriage awfully cramped, but as it was things were fine. The caravan rocked steadily as it ploughed on through the snow. "I'm telling you," the old man said with relish upon each word, "this weathers' just like how it was three years ago, and thirty years afore that. I was up wandering through the Skure mountains back then, and it were as cold as a witch's teat! This cold's like a blast of hot air in the face when compared to that winter."

"Thank goodness it's still technically summer, then. It's funny how the cold started and stopped so abruptly last time." The large man commented as he scratched at his collarbone with a chubby hand. "It lasted almost half a year and then one day everything was perfectly fine, as if somebody blew out the blizzard like a candle. Maybe it's the same here but I don't want to have to wait another five months for some sunshine. It feels worse this time around."

Rune had been keeping his cards close to his chest. He knew all about the dark side of this storm but there was no benefit in confusing unrelated people over it. He warmed his hands over the small portable fire. "I think everybody should prepare for the worst, stock up on firewood and preserves and wait for it to blow out. This cold can't last forever."

The young boy scoffed bitterly at this, and sitting next to the fat man he looked like a miserable wraith, pulling a tattered shawl more closely around his shoulders. "And what about the people who don't have homes no more? I lived in Lidra and my pa made me sleep in the coal cellar because I broke into his moon dew still. The next morning nearly everyone was dead. I never heard a thing. It was like a wind blew through the town and everybody got ripped up." The way the boy was able to deadpan this spoke of details left unexpressed; horrors left unsaid.

A big hand came down to pat the youth's small shoulder. "I heard all about that and the other towns too. I wonder if the demon and the storm are related. They did kind of show up at the same time. My trade outpost got entirely snowed in and we nearly starved to death! I used to be much, much bigger than this!" He laughed encouragingly to lighten the mood.

"So do you think that if we kill off the Red Devil the weather might return to normal, Augustus? That's another good reason to go and hunt the frosty bitch down. I'm guessing that Meese is her next hit; that's why I'm heading back there." The blond palman said, sharpening his dagger on a small whetstone.

"Then our goals are the same." Replied salt-and-pepper, who Rune vaguely remembered introducing himself as 'Dee' or something like that. "I'd like to see what she looks like. She's supposed to be a beautiful woman, the likes of which would make a man melt. Well, that doesn't sound too difficult to capture. A net and some chains should do the trick nicely."

"I'd like to put some holes in her first, if that's okay with you." Said the blond darkly, but before anybody else could say anything the doorway to the side of them slid open and a cold, chilling air blew in. A dezorian guard climbed up the ladder of the carriage and peered inside, checking on the cargo. He reminded Rune of that hunter Gisarg now so many miles away, but this one was older and that spear looked so much nastier than the hunter's whip had been.

This image of him changed immediately when the guard smiled a wide, friendly smile. He said something in native dezorian that Rune for the life of him couldn't understand, but it didn't sound like a threat or barked orders. Rune raised an eyebrow and turned to the others. "Anybody have any idea what he just said then?" The esper asked.

"He says that we are the lucky ones tucked inside with the sacred fire." Dhee answered, folding his arms and leaning back against a crate of salted meat. "All kinds of fire are sacred to dezorians, but that's just because we live in a place like this. There ain't much difference between the sacred fire and the great light, I reckon, when you look at things impartially."

Augustus shivered. It was like watching a small earthquake take place. "Someone tell him to shut the door, he's letting all the snow blow in." He complained.

Roland got up slightly from where he was sitting and said a few words in what sounded like very stilted dezorian. The effect wasn't what he had been expecting, the guard bursting out into a gale of laughter, sliding the door shut anyway. Snow that had lightly dusted the floor was beginning to melt already. "Uh… did I say something funny?" The youth wondered out loud, perplexed. "I thought I told him to close the door."

Dhee laughed in a jolly manner. "You told him to shove a chicken down his pants!" He announced. A few snickers circulated around the carriage for a while, as Roland flopped back heavily on the floor.

Time passed slowly, and boringly, along the caravan on its way to Meese. There was quite a lot of discussion and Rune slept at several points during the trip, so that after a while he lost track of the time of day. This was quite unusual for the esper who prided himself in always knowing which way the wind was blowing. His mind had become dull ever since the coma, but once he returned to the esper mansion he intended to sharpen it back to its original edge.

Somebody had assured him it would be another half day until they came to the junction between the Meese route and the mansion route, and by that point it would be getting dark, but Rune knew of some caverns in the nearby foothills that he could shelter in until the next morning. After that it was just a matter of hoofing it until he reached those high, familiar gates.

He had been mulling over those plans, off in his own little world, when somebody abruptly spoke his name and snapped him out of his reverie. "Hey, mind if I ask you something?" Dhee said, sitting across from the small flame so that the thin trail of white smoke coiled up all around him like a thin worm.

Rune removed his hand from his chin that he had been using as a pillow and straightened up from his gradual slouch. "Huh? What is it?" He murmured, coming out of his daze. Roland was carving something into the wall, Augustus looked like he was meditating, and the young boy was asleep. Even if the carriage seemed anything but private the conversation somehow felt confidential. Maybe it was the quiet, or the faint howling of the storm outside.

The old man pointed at Rune, interested. "What happened to your hand? Frostbite? Monsters? By the way you're holding it seems pretty recent."

He instinctively folded said hand under his arm. "… It's nothing. The cold got into it. That's all."

Dhee laughed softly. "That's the painless way to go." He waved at Rune, who then realised that the old man was missing a thumb and three of his own fingers. It was an old wound, mangled decades ago, cuts that looked like they had been made by saw blades rather than a good clean knife. "A sasquatch took these off me twenty odd years ago. We wrestled in a blizzard just like this one, we did, and when I had him in a headlock he threw me off and had a go at my hand. It wasn't so bad though; I can still swing a sword and get by and play."

He removed a strap from around his front and laid a moderately sized bundle into his lap, wrapped up in faded maroon cloth. There was a strange familiarity to its shape, and when Dhee parted the fabric Rune was reminded of his past, years and years ago when he was young and wet behind the ears, gallivanting around Motavia with the esper mansion only a faint memory behind him. "I haven't seen one of those in ages." Rune finally said, quietly.

The older man gave the traktar; a dezorian acoustic stringed instrument a gentle strum. It emitted a unique, folkish yet slightly mystical sound from the hollow midsection. He had it perfectly tuned, and for a man with only seven fingers he seemed to know what he was doing. "Oh, you like these things do you? Know how to play?" Dhee smiled. "Or d'ya have any good requests?"

Normally Rune would have asked to take a closer look at it, but as he was there was no point in putting his fingers to the strings, He was right-handed and he'd only cause himself pain, of both the physical and mental variety. There were too many strings and not enough fingers to depress them. Obviously the older man had conquered this detriment long ago. The magician thought back to the handfuls of songs he had learned on his travels and the accompanying music which could spring forth.

Many of them reminded him of Alys. Gods, how many times had they traded a song for a place to sleep for the night, to drive away vicious monsters, or just for the pleasure of listening to it? Rune had never been a bard, but it had been a hobby. Something different. Something unrelated to his mission and his destiny and his damned purpose in life. For an adolescent that sort of hobby was a veritable anchor to life, and Alys had liked it.

One song stuck in his mind, though he couldn't remember the precise reason why. "Do you know 'Winter Lovebirds'? I haven't heard that one in forever."

"I know the tune, not so much the words 'cause that's an esper song. This hardly seems the place for a love song like that."

"Play it anyway." Roland interrupted, carving the last letter of his name into the wall.

"I'm an esper, so I know how it goes." Rune explained to him, laying his hands in his lap. "Go on, play it. I'll lend you the words."

"Right then, if you say so." Said Dhee, and strummed the traktar one more time to warm himself up. The song was old, far, far older than any of the people in the caravan, one of those songs that travelled between people and cultures and over time gained weight, carrying memories. Rune himself hardly remembered the words but they hovered there on the very edge of his mind, perhaps part of the memory of a Lutz that had gone before. He had a passable singing voice but it was Dhee's dextrous playing which took the centre stage. It filled the caravan with music, woke the young boy from his slumber, roused Augustus from his meditation and for a very short while blocked out all thought of the surrounding storm.

Esperine was a strange language. It came from no particular race of people, but was born from gifted individuals with the proficiency for magic, espers, in order to inscribe their magic and materials down on paper without outsiders getting a hold of their secrets. Over the course of time it evolved off the page and into other aspects of life. As the Lutz Rune was as fluent in esperine as he was in the common tongue, but he preferred the simpler, common language any day. Still, some of the songs sounded much prettier in the language of the espers.

The song ended with a bang. Literally. Ausgustus felt the door rattle behind him as something was roughly thrown against it, hard enough to startle him and alert everybody else in the room. That wasn't a common occurrence, and Dhee's hands stilled on the traktar. "What was that?" He demanded. "Did we hit a tree or something?"

"Now that you mention it…" Rune muttered, slowly rising from his seat and interrupted in his song. He focussed on his immediate surroundings. It was easy to stop paying attention after such extended boredom. "We've stopped moving. I don't think the caravan has been moving for the past ten minutes or so."

That was really odd. The caravan was only meant to halt once it reached its final destination in Meese. The passengers all looked at one another in varying degrees of confusion. Rune was about to open his mouth a second time to suggest an investigation when another thump, far more powerful than the first, vibrated through the wood and metal caravan like a slow wave. It was like something gigantic had disturbed the ground outside; a small earthquake. A feeling of dread washed over the esper. He had a thought, but…

Rune moved to the sliding doorway and with a heavy, strength-draining push he hauled it open. The blizzard came back in like a raging, unwanted guest. The others followed him except for the young boy, who retreated into the corner furtherest away from the door to hide from the cold. For a few moments the four of them were snow-blinded, used to the low light of indoors, but eventually faint shapes emerged from the howling white.

They were large shapes, and amidst the high winds they could hear both shouting and screaming. The blasting air chilled Rune's body immediately but this time he was properly dressed and geared, so there was a low chance he would freeze straightaway. The thump they had heard earlier had been the body of a palman guard thrown against the caravan, upside down, blood pouring from a chest wound and already cooling in the snow. At a glance Rune could see the fall had broken the man's neck, bent at an excruciating angle.

Somebody groaned in horror behind him, but he didn't look over his shoulder to find out whom. Huge shadows in the storm were moving about like macaroni, like mountainous humps before disappearing from sight and reappearing in a different area. The screams accompanied each disappearance, and then Rune put two and two together and finally understood.

"Oh shit." He said, his body awash with a sinking feeling. "Snow worms. The storm must be making them crazy."

"The guards are supposed to deal with things like this!" Augustus exclaimed, paling at the sight and the screams, hoping that saying it out loud firmly enough would somehow make it true.

"Doesn't look like they're doing a very good job of it." Rune announced sourly as he climbed down the ladder towards the ground, angling to the right so as not to disturb the body of the felled guard. He had no weapons, his staff lost to gods knows where, but he still had his bare hands and his magic. Hopefully that would be enough. He glanced up at the others still on board. "Well? Are you guys coming?" He demanded.

In response Roland took a great leap off the caravan and landed nimbly beside Rune, whipping a dagger out of his belt. Like that the palman reminded Rune somewhat of Chaz, albeit an older, rougher, more cutthroat version of the youth. It was probably the only reminder of that kid left in the worlds, now that all his friends were dead. Rune tried to derail that ugly thought. Roland's stance was tight and defensive, to keep himself warm in the snow.

Dhee didn't hesitate either, though he couldn't just jump from high places like the younger folks he climbed down the ladder and checked the body of the fallen guard, in the slight hope that the poor soul could be saved. It only took a few moments for him to shake his head and stand up, wiping the blood from his hands onto his pants. "It's been happening for weeks now; the storm messes up the way they judge direction and distance and different worm colonies collide into one another. It becomes a war zone." He called out over the wind, loud enough for the others to hear. "I think the caravan ploughed straight into one."

It was common knowledge that snow worms travelled deep underground and only came to the surface for air and to hunt. Nobody could have prevented anything. Within seconds the colony would have been upon the caravans. Well, Rune had some good experience at dealing with creatures of a wormy nature. As Augustus made his way down the ladder Rune grabbed him by the arm near the lower rungs. "Can you go and gather anybody with significant injuries and bring them to a shelter? You look like you can lift a man pretty easily."

Augustus relaxed. He wasn't being asked to fight. Through any kind of adversity the big man considered himself a pacifist at heart. Helping out hurt people was something he _could_ do. "Yeah, no problem. I'll take them up to the front of the caravan where the head guards must be." He shouted back up into the carriage. "Hey Billy! Are you coming out?"

A weak, frightened cry bounced back at him. "No! Go away!" He yelled, obviously intent on staying put.

There were twelve giant snow worms in total; two colonies of six. As Rune, Dhee and Roland ran out to the front lines of the skirmish Rune hoped that maybe injuring a few of them would encourage the rest to get lost. Otherwise, either way, there was going to be a massacre on their hands.

Rune coughed as he sprinted through the white drifts. The extra exertion was already making him feel tired. He knew that he was not ready for this, and it was a far cry from the journey Laerma had hoped for him, but this was how things were. If he fell short there would be no miraculous rescue waiting for him a second time.

"Stay together," he warned his new companions as the ground began to rumble beneath their feet, "and let's go."

†††

What happened next could only be chalked up to pure chance; unfortunate chance when seen from the caravan's point of view. The towns that had been hit by the Red Devil were all in the Meese/Jut area, Lidra, Majimra and Reshel, and the caravan route slashed through those lands like a curved sword blade. On Dezoris Mieus was alone, and had been alone for five weeks now. She liked it that way. She didn't need any help at all.

She had been walking in the foothills of the mountains, parallel to the caravan route without even knowing it was there, simply taking the easiest path wherever the road would lead her. If she found another town that would be her next mark. Her method of Siren's Way was looser, more relaxed than her Motavian counterpart, but she was already many times more successful. Three layan villages had been wiped clean, barely a handful of survivors between the lot of them. Dead layan bodies were far more valuable than any measure of land grabbing and diplomacy. Her master permitted her wanderings because she was so successful.

As long as she was better than her partner on Motavia Mieus was happy. The environment had changed her over time, the ice and snow and unbearable chill freezing her to the core. This didn't stop her, her heating system kept her moving while her perfect skin and body became encased in sheets of armour-like ice. She did not fear biomonsters, if any came upon her they'd be shredded just as thoroughly as any layan or enemy.

But now in the late afternoon in the middle of Dezoris' current storm Mieus could have sworn that she was hearing a strange sound, some kind of highly-pitched song. It was dreadfully hard to hear with the winds and the snow constantly blowing against her face but if she fiddled with the audio settings within her inner ears she could tune out the lower frequencies and focus on the higher ones, just on the verge of her artificial senses.

She was standing there, motionless, like a statue with her head cocked to one side. It didn't sound like any natural noise, more like something emitted by a machine, but she knew that the closest mechanized facility was much too far away to be creating any kind of audible noise. Mieus felt drawn to it somehow, even though it would pull her away from her whimsical path through the foothills. It would lead into the valley, towards flat featureless ground with no landmarks in sight.

However, she was cautious. Wandering off with no idea of what to expect was a sure-fire way to get herself into trouble. Mieus searched her belt and took out her little communicator, finely-tuned so that she could send and receive audio messages straight from Zelan. Communications software built into her body worked fine for short distances, but anything further required separate aids. Mieus hadn't been able to program this one properly, but fortunately a nice android on Zelan had worked it out for her.

Mieus contacted that nice android now, sitting down on a snow-encrusted rock and crossing her legs, resting a hand upon her knee. After a few seconds the connection was picked up. "Hello Ronnie, are you there or is your shift over already? Mind if I talk to you for a few minutes?" She called sweetly.

"Mieusy! How are you? What's the special occasion? You don't usually call in these hours unless you're really bored." The communicator said right back to her in the voice of one of the administrators back on Zelan. Ronnie wasn't very special in any way, shape or form, but if she called Zelan through him she could be sure her line wouldn't accidentally be connected to Demi, who she knew was up there, somewhere.

Besides, Ronnie was a male android and as long as they had some degree of emotion Mieus was beginning to remember how she could make men do whatever she wanted, regardless of what it was. It was just so easy it was almost criminal, and even androids were not immune. "Aww, do I really need a reason to talk to you when you're always _so_ nice to me? I'm all by myself on this big scary planet; I'm so alone. Do you know anything about funny-sounding noises? Ones that kind of sound like your ears are ringing?"

"Maybe your ears _are_ ringing, babe." Ronnie laughed, but then reminded himself to keep his voice down as he was hardly in a private area. From across the control room Debbie glanced at him for a few seconds before continuing her work. He lowered his volume a bit. "Why are you asking about things like that?"

"Here, I recorded a sample of the sound with all external noise filtered out. I'll broadcast it to Zelan through the nearest satellite, so lookie carefully at your terminal for a present!" She chimed as she worked through all the preparations to send a sound file wirelessly. Of course, she could just hold her communicator out into the air and hope that he could pick it up from there, but the chances were unlikely. The thing could only really pick up voices and some faint background sound, that was all.

After some time Ronnie responded to her. "Okay, I have it now. Give me a moment to analyse it." Obediently, Mieus sat back and waited for any kind of interesting results. The storm didn't bother her much. To her the snow felt like she was being pelted with soft feather down. Soon her connection got back to her. "Um, Mieus, baby? Are you sure this is the file you wanted to send me?"

Mieus was surprised. "Huh? Of course it is. Why wouldn't it be?"

"Because this sound sample is blank. I can't hear anything on it. Maybe there's a fault in your audio hardware. The low temperatures could have damaged it. If that is so then you could come back to Zelan and Master Siren can repair you. Hey, if that happens then we might be able to talk again in person!" He could not mask the eagerness in his voice.

"But that can't be! I can hear the whistling loud and clearly! Are you sure you're listening to it right?" Mieus protested, pretending that she hadn't heard that last part.

"Oh, well… I don't know what to tell you." Ronnie conceded, not sure how to go forward. If he couldn't make the beautiful mieu-type happy then she might decide to stop talking with him, and that was one of the few major perks of his post there. Close by him Whistler, faintly hearing the word 'whistle' in Mieus' sentence, perked up and whistled at Ronnie. Within those peeps and squeaks was some good advice. "Oh… Whistler is saying that mieu-types have a more highly developed audio system when compared to conventional androids. You're probably hearing something way out of my range. Lowering the frequency now…"

He sounded relieved. As for Mieus she was getting rather anxious, bored and wanting to continue on in her journey. Her contact on Zelan wasn't meant to be taking so long. She sighed and scraped the tips of her claws lightly against the sheets of ice down her thighs, leaving faint trails in the frost. "Ronnie," she cooed, only a step away from a whine, "are you done yet?"

"I have it now. This is an interesting sound, Mieusy. It's some variety of supersonic wave, fluctuating like a mathematical language. It must be coming from some kind of life form or awakened AI. I'll put it aside for a deeper analysis later." The blond android promised over the communicator.

That appraisal had been no help whatsoever, telling the girl nothing she didn't already know. It was a big let-down. Mieus had thought she'd actually found something unusual. She pulled the communicator away and stuck her tongue out at it in disappointment, then returned it back to her ear. "Okay then, you go ahead and do that. In the meantime I'm going to follow that sound and find out where it's coming from. If it's a layan signal I'll stop it and whoever's making it dead in their tracks. Talk to you later."

"Mieus-"

She clicked the communicator off, standing up from the stone. She began the downward descent into the valley, without any idea of what she was about to encounter.

It appeared that she and Rune's paths were destined to be crossed all over again.

†††

Rune couldn't perform at the level he and the others had met while fighting the Profound Darkness three years ago, like a trained athlete not exercising his muscles and mind he knew he had dropped down to intermediate level skills, or worse. Attempting anything more difficult than a gifoi could stress his mind into damaging itself, so he planned on making do with whatever he had left at his fingertips. The cold winds of the storm sliced at his exposed skin like razor blades, but he could just hear the crunching steps of his comrades in the snow, following right behind him.

There was no question as to which direction they needed to go. The shadowy humps of the moving snow worms were landmarks enough, and even without that they merely had to follow the shouting and the spots of blood seeping into the ground. Rune passed another guard who was lying prostrate in the snow but he didn't stop to check on him; there was no time and anyhow he was already struggling to his feet by himself. With luck Augustus would get to the injured man soon enough.

They also had to be mindful of huge holes in the turf, burrows that the snow worms had used to erupt out of the ground and into the open air. The worms were smaller than their motavian counterparts but what they lacked in size they easily made up for in hostility. These ones were large enough already. Rune and the others finally made it to the front lines, meeting up with two other guards armed with spears, trying to drive away their enemy with threatening gestures and jabs.

The snow worm they were matched against had reared up like a serpent ready to strike, at least three storeys tall with a tubular mouth lined with hooked, jagged teeth. Thrusting the spears up into the air at the creature and shouting at the top of their lungs seemed to make it uneasy, caused it to hesitate, but it was not backing down or away. One of the guards noticed the sharp crunch of snow as Rune halted beside him and half-turned to the Lutz while still warding away the monster. He was a huge palman, with huge black hair and beard.

"What are you doing here?" He barked loudly at the weakened esper. "You are meant to be safe in caravan! Go back! We take care of this!"

Yet he was hardly in the position to say that they didn't need any help. The only way the caravan was going to commence was if there were still enough guards remaining after the snow worms had figured themselves out and left. Rune refused to listen to their escort. "A few of your friends are already dying or dead. You don't have time to worry about where your cargo is." He announced firmly.

Before the guard could answer him the snow worm leaned forward and dove straight for Rune and the two guards. It was actually targeting the ground beneath their feet, but snow worms hunted that way as they skimmed the surface for food and then brought it down with them, into the depths of the underground. It was like having a mountain falling down on top of them. The guards took their spears and fled, running off in scattering directions while all Rune felt he needed to do was look up.

Were those other two passengers still there with him? He could hear Dhee trying to catch his breath and Roland uttered a low curse word, hardly audible in the blizzard. If they wanted to survive this was the point at which Rune's magical powers had to come back to life. It had to be stronger than the little licks of flame he had conjured back at Laerma's hut; it needed to be strong enough to turn away a rampaging monster. But if it was too strong, if his pull for the magic exceeded the health of his spirit then he might throw himself back into a coma, or induce an aneurysm in his head. It would just have to be a risk he needed to take.

After all, who had ever heard of a Lutz without magic before?

"Flaeli!"

Its goal was the tasty morsels on the field, but before it could get a mouthful of palman it ate fire instead; a ball of red hot flaeli sent hurtling into its gaping maw. He'd cast better even on his off days, but by the skin of his teeth it was enough. The worm convulsed and choked on the spell, falling to the left and crashing down a ways beside Rune, curling up in the safe, white snow. Smoke streamed from between its teeth and a smell began to rise along the winds; the stomach-rolling stench of burnt snow worm.

It was in shock for a few moments, as anyone would be after swallowing a hot coal like _that_, then it wriggled itself back into life and leapt downwards, forcing itself below the frost and crust of Dezoris. The palmans had to shield themselves from the debris that burst out at them, hunks of rocks and ice, but soon enough the worm was gone and only a hole replaced it, one large enough to lose an entire caravan carriage in.

A local silence took over amidst the blizzard and the battle. Rune was rather surprised at himself; he hadn't expected to drive the snow worm away with only one fell swoop. Dhee and Roland weren't very familiar with the works of espers either, so they were understandably impressed. The two looked at Rune as if he had… well, performed a very baffling magic trick. The older man frowned at him, rather than a smile. "So you really _are_ an esper. I'd mistaken you for a simple braggart. Do you think you could do that thing again?"

As draining as casting that first spell had been, Rune was pretty certain that he wasn't running on empty just yet. He brushed loose strands of hair that had come free from his ponytail out of his face. He sighed. "Yeah, again and again until all the fighting stops. Next."

He moved on to the next one. Roland and Dhee were forced to follow, but it was easy to keep up because Rune wasn't able to move very fast; each step seemed to sink his legs deeper and deeper into the drifts of snow. Roland wasn't sure about what he could do. All he had was his daggers, short range weapons which were useless against such creatures threatening their caravan, but Dhee didn't have any weapons at all and he was still following Rune, and he was _old_, so the blond palman kept up as well.

The next monster closest to them was significantly larger and tougher; an elder of its species, and it was duelling with another snow worm younger and smaller than itself. They fought by rearing up against one another and lunging and slamming their heads together, trying to knock the other down and rake sharp teeth against stretches of mottled skin. It was like watching two mountains do battle, while between and all around them tiny guards tried to deal as much damage as they could with whatever weapons they had on hand.

Some of the guards' spears were stuck into the lower hide of the monsters, like little arrows, streams of clear goo seeping from the small wounds. Those guards were not so averse to seeing aid in the form of other people coming out of nowhere. One young dezorian grabbed Rune for support as his bloodied and rapidly frostbitten leg was beginning to give out. "We have to stop them fighting! If they move closer to the carriages they're liable to crush them!" The youth cried, groaning as the pressure was removed from his leg.

"What the hell happened to you?" Rune found himself asking the guard. It didn't make sense. Snow worms ate people with no mess or fuss. It was an instantaneous thing and worms could not close their mouths to bite or gnaw, so why was he seeing so much blood on the snow, so many small, palman-sized wounds? Rune remembered the guard thrown against their carriage. A snow worm could have hurled him with ease, but what about that gaping wound on his chest?

The smaller snow worm thrashed its tail as its elder scored its open mouth harshly against its side. One poor palman who had his spear jammed deeply into the creature's rear was tossed high into the air, maintaining the grip on his weapon's shaft for dear life. The tail bucked and suddenly the man's grip was gone, hurled away and vanishing within moments. There was a distant hoarse cry, a thud, and then it was over.

The young dezorian was trying to elevate his bleeding leg away from the ground but he kept swaying and Rune kept moving around so every so often he would hiss in pain and discomfort. "I don't know what happened! I was running towards my friends and then something sliced my leg open! I'm not sure what it was; it all happened so quickly!" He moaned.

"Just a question; do snow worms have eyes?" Roland interrupted, craning his neck up to look at the two clashing beasts. The man fingered one of his daggers as he said this. He was born and raised on Dezoris but lumbrical anatomy was not something he had been big on in school.

"Yeah, but they're mostly blind." Dhee replied as he walked over to the moving, pulsating wall of flesh. He placed a hand upon it. It wasn't nearly as wet and slimy as he would have guessed from looking upon it, and its body was covered in small ridges, like a tiny less threatening earthworm. "They have two little eyes right above their mouths but below the feelers they use to do talking, or some such. Huh, I wonder if I can…" Against all logic and sanity he started to climb.

It was surprising that he could get proper footing and handholds in the monster's skin, but Ghee was getting some pretty good height already. Rune stepped away from the worms while holding up the wounded dezorian with one arm. "What the hell are you doing?" He shouted angrily, showing his indignation. He couldn't in good conscience throw fire spells at a monster while there was a person climbing up its side. There was always a chance Rune might accidentally hurt him.

He was in for more bad news. Roland had a brainwave while watching Dhee climb the monster and sprung into action. "Hey, that's a great idea!" He exclaimed and launched himself up onto the other snow worm, climbing with impressive agility up its belly. Rune had no freaking idea what the two hunters were trying to prove, but it left him stranded down there, practically alone and unable to cast. Sure the worms were probably big enough to hurl flaeli at to his heart's content and not hit a single ally, but even a minute chance was still a chance. He did not want somebody else's blood on his hands.

Rune retreated with his casualty and left the guards remaining there free to poke and prod at their two adversaries. At this point the cold of the storm was beginning to penetrate even the thick furs and leather he was wearing. Everything else felt numb. One thought which filled him with horror was the thought of his hands and feet turning dead and black all over again, and imagining how many digits or limbs he'd lose _next_ time.

"Goddammit, I just wanted to get to the mansion in peace! Is that so freaking hard?" Rune snarled at the blizzard in general, finding solace in annoyance and frustration rather than despair. For him the familiar, safe places in the worlds felt like they were rapidly growing short.

"You know," the dezorian coughed weakly as Rune tried to get them both up a snowdrift with minimal fuss, "I think I _am_ starting to remember what happened to my leg. It wasn't much, but almost the second before it happened from the corner of my eye I saw some red. It was hard to see in all that snow and I was in a hurry, so I forgot about it." The lad sounded pensive, well, as much as he could while in dire pain.

"Red?" Rune repeated, for some reason piqued by that idea. "What do you mean by seeing red?" It reminded him of something, but for now he couldn't pinpoint what.

"I don't know. I really don't know. Argh… oww!" His leg finally gave out and he went down, nearly dragging Rune along with him. It was only by the strength of the esper's arm that he didn't faceplant into the snow.

Rune frowned. He guessed it wasn't really important right now, so he wiped the frown off his face and focussed on what really mattered. "Alright, I'll bring you back to the caravan, but from there look for a fat guy called Augustus. He'll help you out." They started moving again. It was like taking part in a three-legged race, limping and balancing and trying hard not to fall.

Heading down the slope Rune felt the snow shift and before he knew it the ground erupted and another snow worm flew out at them, wriggling and curling around to stare at them with its near-blind eyes. Were it not for its highly-developed sonar system it would not have been able to tell anyone was there at all. It was only a child, a baby scarcely the size of a tree. Rune looked at it for what it really was; an obstacle blocking the path back to the caravans and the dezorian's safety.

But he had already figured out how to deal with things like these. The magician extended a hand out in the direction of the beast. Waves of heat began to rise from the velvet of his gloves, though it was hard to see in the wind. Rune could definitely feel the magic heating up his hand, and _oh gods_ did it feel good. "Don't worry kid," he reassured his companion, "this'll only take a second. Flael-"

Too late, it was already upon them. It hung a left and smashed into Rune from the side, throwing at him all the force and weight that a moving tree could. Something went _crunch_ and Rune heard a hideous scream, but all he knew was that it was not coming from his own lips. He hit the ground with his shoulder first and his neck and cheek touched snow, while a good handful of it found its way into the furry collar of his coat.

He waited to feel the pain and it came just as expected, his left side bruised and throbbing with agony. Rune pulled himself up into a sitting position as quickly as he could manage and concentrated again; trying to call back the interrupted spell while looking all around to see where his target had slithered off to. A dark patch in the snow caught his eye.

The guard had absorbed ninety percent of the snow worm's assault. His chest had caved in as if he had been smashed by a battering ram, but there was a surprisingly little amount of blood. His clothes were probably soaking it all up. He looked dead, like a smashed pumpkin. If he wasn't dead he soon would be, and if he still drew breath all Rune could do was pity him. That dezorian… just by being there he had saved Rune's life.

Fire reignited in the magician's blood. He hauled himself up and as the worm came out of the ground a second time Rune blew its head off with a single spell, shouting out the incantation "_Flaeli__!_" that ignited the magic and watching with rage-tinted satisfaction as hunks and globs of half cooked worm meat scattered itself over the ground. It did make him feel better for a few moments, but looking back down at the guard's body made it all seem so pointless.

Now there was no reason to go back. Rune heard a mighty roar behind him and glanced over his shoulder into the wind, but he was not too far away to see. Dhee had scaled up to the head of the elder snow worm using nothing but his balance and his strength, and with two huge hands he grabbed a hold of the worm's wiggly, sensitive feelers. He wrenched and pulled. One of the feelers tore off, and then came the scream which echoed for miles and miles around. For a creature like that it was like poking out an eye. The seasoned hunter triumphantly rode the shocked and reeling snow worm all the way back to the ground.

Speaking of eyes, that was Roland's current target. His plan was pretty similar to Dhee's, only he took both his daggers from his belt and, while balancing precariously on the monster's head, leaned down and stabbed its blind eyes out. He used the feelers as leg holds as he performed his dirty work. Roland wished that the blades would go right through the eye sockets and into its gelatinous brain. Once the hunter was done he too fell with the worm all the way down to the ground, but unlike Dhee he lost control and landed in the snow many yards away.

Rune was at a crossroads. He wasn't quite sure where to go. A part of him didn't want to leave the body of the dezorian lying there dead and alone, but doing anything else was impractical. Perhaps in part he felt letting that dezorian die was an affront to Gisarg and Laerma, who had helped him so much without any obligation to do so. There was of course no connection to them through this guard besides race, but still…

But then…

Red.

He _also_ noticed it from the corner of his eye. Rune turned sharply and braced himself as if he were about to enter battle, then he froze. Shit. It made perfect sense, he just hadn't had the time to notice it. "Oh damn it; I should have known it was you." He groaned.

Mieus folded her arms and smiled at him.

"And a fresh hello to you too, sweetie." She said.


End file.
